


Pieces Of Me

by poprockshawty



Series: The Guiding Light [2]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Alternate Universe - Demons, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Hunters, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Angst, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Demons, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Smut, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Friends With Benefits, Hurt/Comfort, Minor Character Death, Monsters, Multi, Slow Burn, Smut, Vampire Hunters, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-05
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-03-27 14:53:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 17
Words: 39,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13883187
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poprockshawty/pseuds/poprockshawty
Summary: Danielle is a strong, independent vampire who don’t need no rookie demon like Oh Sehun or playboy monster like Byun Baekhyun. At least that’s what she likes to think, until hunters of the supernatural come along and chaos ensue. She may be powerful and immortal...but underneath the surface, she is a broken puzzle, trying to hold together all of her pieces.Volume #2 of 'The Guiding Light'





	1. The Vampire's Monster

Waiting. Baekhyun was waiting. Alone in his car, windows down, lying back like a boss, he was idly tapping his pretty fingers on the steering wheel as he hummed a tune that was stuck in his head. Here he was, at the Incheon International Airport, about to pick up an old friend. This old friend was in the form of a tall blonde who looked to be in her early twenties, but of course there was more to it than met the eye, for she had been 23 for the past 400 years, her apparent age forever frozen in time ever since she became a vampire. But 400 years meant little to Baekhyun as he himself was a monster and he had been around for a lot longer than a few centuries, so he could literally wait here forever as he did have all the time in the world.

 

Luckily, Baekhyun’s vampire friend did not take long to show up. It was easy for her to spot his enviable Aston Martin Rapide in the parking lot full of families and couples reuniting in rapture or separating in sorrow. Luggage in tow, she waved at Baekhyun and smiled.

 

“Hey,” Baekhyun said mirthfully and waved back as she made her way over to him. “Looking great, Danielle!”

 

“As usual,” Danielle grinned confidently. The sun was about to set, its rays hitting her hair perfectly, making it shine beautifully and glow golden. She could walk freely in the day thanks to the daylight ring she was wearing — it was charmed and bore an enchanted gemstone to protect vampires from the sunlight. (Likewise, the werewolves’ counterpart was a moonlight ring.)

 

Tucking her luggage nicely into the trunk of his car, Danielle rode shotgun with Baekhyun as he drove off, on their way to her new apartment that she shared with a family member.

 

“You hungry?” He asked casually before smacking himself on the forehead as he suddenly remembered something. “Ah, I should’ve brought a blood bag for you.”

 

“Don’t worry. I’m full,” she answered, licking her lips.

 

“Oh, good,” he replied. “So, how was Japan? Did you enjoy your trip?”

 

“Yeah, it was amazing!” She said cheerily. “I had a lot of fun.”

 

“Without me though,” he pouted. “When was the last time we had fun together?”

 

“Didn’t we break into the amusement park last month to ride the Ferris wheel when it was like, almost dawn or something?” She giggled at the memory. “The world was so quiet and it was just the two of us.”

 

“Yeah, that was really something,” he beamed too. “But that’s not the kind of fun I was talking about.”

 

She understood immediately and chewed on her lip as she looked at him. “Baekhyun, I told you, I don’t do relationships, even with immortals. I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to re—”

 

“I’m not saying we should go back to dating,” he sighed. “I know we’ve tried it so many times and it’s never really worked out. So I guess maybe we really are better as just friends. But that shouldn’t stop us from having fun together, you know? I mean, think of how we met in the first place. You can’t deny what we’ve always shared.”

 

“I haven’t forgotten,” she said quietly as she thought about how Baekhyun had come into her life a century ago. They both thought it was going to be nothing more than a one-night-stand; they had each had a lot of those as they had lived for so long. That was until they were recently reunited through a mutual friend, the vampire Kyungsoo. Since then, a friendship grew between them and they dated on-again, off-again, but she did agree that there was a lot more physical attraction between them than ‘just friends’ would have. 

 

“Come on, I know we live forever but we do only live once,” he joked and nudged her in encouragement. “We can do everything that friends do together...and also what they normally  _ don’t  _ do,” he added suggestively. “It’s a mutually beneficial deal. Think about it.”

 

She took a good look at him while his eyes remained on the road. Damn, he was just as attractive as she remembered him, if not even more so. Just one look, one brief reminder of his handsomeness, and any reservation or hesitation she had would be expelled. She loved being friends with him and it was a very functional and healthy friendship, but she also desired him, and vice versa.

 

“I don’t see why not,” she said finally, an impish smile playing at her lips.

 

He smirked too, evidently pleased.

 

* * *

 

“Ah, there’s no place like home!” Happily, Danielle dropped her bags and bolted to her room. She placed her phone on the nightstand and sat down on her comfortable bed immediately, patting it before turning to lie down on her stomach as if attempting to embrace the large bed. Spreading her limbs and resting her cheek against one of the pillows to feel its coolness, she cooed, “I’ve missed you so much, dear! I think about you every night.”

 

Baekhyun followed her into the room, leaning against the door frame and chuckling at her. “So, I guess unpacking can wait, eh?”

 

She turned to him and nodded. “You remember the first night I spent on this bed? When Katie and I first moved in.”

 

“I remember the first night,” he remarked, licking his lips. “And the second, and the third too. Good times.” 

 

“Yeah. Makes me wanna relive it. I want a reenactment.” She was on her back again, in a semi-recumbent position, a playful gleam in her grey-blue eyes that Baekhyun definitely caught and did not misunderstand. He winked, then joined her on the bed, ready to play. She sat up straight and he brought his face closer to hers. With a finger, gently he tilted her chin upward, and she wrapped her arms around him. Their heads were angled perfectly for a kiss, but that was when her phone rang, effectively ruining the moment.

 

“Dammit,” Danielle muttered under her breath while Baekhyun just laughed gently. But she was indeed expecting a call from someone, and she did NOT want to miss it, so she picked up right away. “Hello? … Hey, yeah, I just got home.”

 

She had expected this to be a short conversation, but what she did NOT expect was to see Baekhyun stripping. Actually it was more like a striptease, as he did not remove his black leather jacket all the way; he just left it sliding off his shoulders. His hands already went to the hem of his shirt, finding the opening of his ripped jeans and unzipping them. By the time she realized what he was up to, she glowered at him and mouthed a ‘stop it’ to him, but he was having way too much fun to obey. Just look at him, wearing more of a cheeky smirk and less of his clothes.

 

“Sorry, what was that?” Danielle mumbled absentmindedly. She frowned and tried to focus on the person on the other end of the line, but was of course failing miserably. How could she concentrate on anything else but  _ Baekhyun  _ when the monster was taking this teasing to the next level by  _ kissing her neck _ now?? She tried to push him away from her, but her body knew better and only delivered weak, half-hearted nudges which took no effect. He only got bolder, nipping on her jaw and leaving a trail of kisses from her chin to her earlobe. She shuddered and bit her lip, forcing herself to say something in reply to the caller even though she was sure she would just be uttering nonsense at this point.

 

“Alright, sure,” she ended up saying. She was vaguely aware that she sounded breathless, which was no doubt the result of what Baekhyun was doing to her. He was taking off his jacket tantalizingly slowly now, one sleeve at a time. More and more his milky skin was exposed and she knew she could not stay on the phone any longer. “Yep, I’ll see you then,” she blurted hastily. She could not bring herself to give a damn anymore if her words made any sense. It was getting hot in here and she was too affected by Baekhyun’s kisses on the shell of her ear. Impatiently she ended the call and cast the device aside. With a growl, she flipped him over and topped.

 

“You do  _ not _ tease me like that, naughty boy,” she warned, tugging at his clothes roughly and managing to get him to remove his white shirt. She traced a finger from his collarbone to his navel, then her lips followed that trail. She took pleasure in kissing his abs; it had never failed to turn her on. When they locked gazes she was not glaring at him anymore. Rather, desire clouded her eyes.

 

He tapped his jeans. “You want these out of the way?” He knew the answer but continued to tease, even slowly gliding his fingers over the tip of his nose, past his lips, and down to his chin. “Not unless  _ you _ undress too.”

 

She shook her head and sat on her knees, instantly becoming aware of how wet she was. “It’s my turn to play.”

 

She pulled his jeans down, but not all the way — she stopped at his knees. Since he found it so entertaining to tease her, now she was going to be just as merciless in teasing him too. She chuckled wickedly and grabbed his crotch, feeling his bulge through his boxer briefs. She decided to slide her hand up and down, and did not neglect his balls. He whined softly in protest, wanting to be touched without the layer of fabric in between, but she ignored him for now. He had no one to blame, for  _ she  _ was not the one who initiated the teasing game.

 

“You’re gonna make me cream my pants,” he groaned when she rubbed and stroked him even faster, the back of his hand connecting with his forehead as if to wipe away the beads of sweat that were forming.

 

“You gonna make a mess? Well maybe you won’t even get to,” she said singsong, then stopped altogether. “But I will give you the satisfaction of getting to unclothe me.”

 

He needed no further encouragement. He practically pounced onto her and efficiently stripped her naked. Taking this as a chance to regain the upper hand, he made the wise decision to stay on top. He was also kissing her like he meant it, no half-assed pecks as he felt no need to hold back. He touched her everywhere, but most importantly he was fingering her, two digits pumping in and out without difficulty because of how wet she already was. She ground into his palm for more stimulation, grabbing and squeezing his shoulders as she moaned softly into his mouth. He then added a finger to stretch her even more, which caused her to gasp. Her reactions pleased him, and when he stroked her clit with his thumb, it made her lose control and she shut her eyes in pleasure. That signaled to him that she was close, but instead of continuing to pleasure her, he withdrew his fingers from her.

 

Right away, she opened her mouth to complain, but no words came out as he had seen this coming. He was quick to shove his digits into her mouth, muffling her voice. He grinned puckishly. “Lick them clean,” he said, and it was only after she followed his instructions begrudgingly that he took them out. “That’s a good girl.”

 

“Baekhyun,” she grumbled as she reached for his boxer briefs, pulling them down to find that he was as hard as a rock. “Enough teasing.” 

 

He laughed. “It’s enough when  _ I  _ say it’s enough,” he asserted, and proceeded to kiss and caress her breasts.

 

“Quit playing.” Her tone was pleading. She could feel herself dripping for him. She needed him  _ now _ . “Do me already.”

 

“You want this in you, hmm?” He grabbed her hand and made her touch his erect cock. “How do you want it?”

 

“I don’t care,” she whined. She turned to lie on her side and rubbed her thighs together, just dying for some friction. “You can have me any way that you want.”

 

_ That _ had stirred his loins. She was so eager, so needy, so desperate for him. To say the least, it was a boost to his ego. Gladly, he decided to oblige.

 

Since she was conveniently propping herself up on one elbow, supported by a few pillows, and her legs were outstretched, he decided to lift her upper leg, and she was so ready for him that she decided to spice it up by extending it straight up in the air, perpendicular to the other leg which he straddled. When he entered her, she cried out in bliss, finally getting what she wanted. It felt so good to be stretched and filled that she was weak for a moment, and needed to rest her leg against his shoulder. He grunted at how hot this pose was, and was so aroused that he did not start slow. He was rocking back and forth, thrusting up and down, and it felt so good for both of them that their moans and groans filled the room.

 

Her free hand roamed to every place on his body that she could reach, mostly his toned chest, and it reminded her of all the times he had deliberately left the first few buttons of his shirt undone to offer her a peek. “Fuck, you’re so hot,” she said breathily, absorbed in the delightful sensations that his strokes brought.

 

He let out a grunt at her compliment and it spurred him on to give her more of what she had signed up for. He picked up a faster pace and pounded into her hard. Taking advantage of the position, he kissed her calves, a region that seldom got attention when in bed, but Baekhyun was too experienced a lover and knew just how to please a woman. She was moaning loudly and lewdly and demanded more, so he gave it to her. During the first few nights he had spent in this bed, he was slamming into her like there was no tomorrow, and she loved every minute of it. Now, he was more than happy to bring it back. But this time, he was going to do more than that. He had one hand holding her leg, the other moving to rub her sensitive clit. Together with his accelerated thrusts, this excellent combination had brought her deliciously close to her peak. She tried to keep the eye contact that communicated all of their sizzling passion, but when she hit her climax she just could not. She shut her eyes and exclaimed his name in ecstasy. He twitched in her and when she came, her muscles clenched around him which sent him straight to his orgasm. Pleasure jolted through his veins as he had his release in her.

 

Her eyes only fluttered open again when he pulled out from her, both of them panting. But the paradisiacal sensations had barely subsided when they heard the front door unlock and open.

 

“I'm home!”

 


	2. The Vampire's Human

Among the generally unsuspecting humankind, two demons sat down quietly in a restaurant, remaining inconspicuous. If they drew attention at all, it would be because of their good looks rather than because of their supernatural origins. Both of them were clad in business suits, looking smart and very fine. The older demon, Junmyeon, bore a dark and alluring look in his eyes that was sure to arouse whoever he was to set his sights on. There was an air of strictness and authority to him, but all of that would melt away whenever he smiled, and he'd appear much friendlier, a lot more approachable — many victims, or 'targets', were lured in that way.

By contrast, the younger demon, Sehun, was reserved and mysterious. Sometimes his gaze would be too intense to be met and held, as if warning others to keep a distance for their own safety, but then his tall frame and broad shoulders had made him so attractive that few could remain indifferent and not be helplessly drawn to him. Yet in spite of his stature, he seemed so small right now.

"You're nervous," Junmyeon commented casually as he observed Sehun, who sat opposite to him, just tensely chewing on his straw even though he had already long finished his chocolate bubble tea.

"No I'm not," Sehun insisted, as if lying would make him feel less anxious about this mission that he and Junmyeon and a number of other demons were sent here for. His leader hyung was right; he was extremely nervous. He had just finished his demon training; he had very little experience and so he was not very confident that he would do well on his very first mission as a fresh graduate. Actually, he was already very fortunate to have been able to graduate smoothly. Not long ago, his fellow classmate Jongin was ejected from his training because he was deemed too weak and no longer useful to Hell. At the same time, their senior, Yixing, was  _so close_  to graduation yet  _still_  got kicked out because of a series of predestined events. Now both of them were reduced to humans. Just ordinary, paltry, mortal humans. And Sehun did not want to end up like that. Failure was really not an option.

Junmyeon snorted. "Yes of course you are. Or have you forgotten we can smell certain emotions? You reek of tenseness."

"Shut up," Sehun murmured, even though he actually did wish Junmyeon would keep talking. Otherwise his own thoughts would be so deafening and defeating that they would crush him.

"Nah. I would be worried too, if I were you. Aigoo, I remember my very first mission too, and how jittery I was the night before," Junmyeon remarked, pushing his emptied plate aside. "But from experience, I've learned that as long as you follow commands carefully and adhere to the guidelines you were given, you should be fine. Do you remember what your orders are?"

Sehun nodded as he recalled the instructions he was given when he attended the briefing for this mission. He repeated his supervisor's words in his head: 'all members of the Campbell clan are wanted alive, not dead. They are to be captured and brought to our headquarters for further questioning'.

"Good," replied Junmyeon, standing up and ready to leave. "Let's get started then."

* * *

"I'm home!"

Both Danielle and Baekhyun cursed under their breaths and had to put their clothes back on as quickly as they had taken them off. They were taking their sweet time just now and had not spared any thought for possible interruptions. But they had actually been warned — if only Danielle was able to pay attention to the conversation on the phone just then.

Flustered and sweating, Danielle hopped to living room, still clumsily pulling at her clothes and awkwardly trying to fix her hair. She still had to look decent even though the short brunette who had just walked through the door had seen her naked before.

"Katie?" Danielle blurted, still surprised and flummoxed. "You're home," she added lamely, trying to buy more time for Baekhyun who was more than grateful that his jeans were not taken off all the way. "So early! I, uh, I was just...about to unpack!" She blurted out the first excuse that came to mind and pointed at her luggage.

Katie put her bags on the table and beamed. "I'm so happy to have you back! You've got to tell me all about your trip."

The embarrassment had diffused and Danielle broke into a warm smile. "Come here," she said affectionately, pulling Katie into a hug. "I've missed you. Have you been taking good care of yourself? How have you been feeling? Should I be worried?" It took her a moment to realize that she was asking too many questions at a time, but she could not help it. Her maternal instincts were popping up and after all, she did raise Katie, all on her own.

"I've missed you too," Katie replied. "I spent quite some time in the university library, catching up and reading ahead so that I won't be so stressed when I resume my studies. I've only had one panic attack while you're gone. I was at the dorm, alone in my room at the time, but I called my friend and she accompanied me through the night. But other than that, I've been feeling better generally," she smiled. "Which is really an improvement. Oh, and also, I've met this guy..."

Danielle looked fascinated. "You have to tell me all about it. All the details. No secrets."

"Alright, alright," Katie giggled. "But I saw Baekhyun's car in the driveway just now. Is he staying for dinner?"

"Nope, he's not," said Baekhyun himself, emerging from the hallway, fully dressed although his hair was still a bit messy. "Gotta go," he murmured, checking his Rolex watch.

"What? But we haven't properly caught up yet," Danielle protested.

"Sorry," said Baekhyun unapologetically. "This noona is strict on punctuality.  _And_  I've already taken a rain check the last time we were supposed to go on a date."

"But, Baekhyun, you're ancient. No one could possibly be old enough to be your  _noona_ ," Katie joked.

"A date..." Danielle frowned. "You're seeing someone? Is that why you..." her voice trailed off but it was obvious that she was questioning his motive for suggesting that they become friends with benefits rather than rekindle their romance.

"Yes," Baekhyun answered curtly. "Don't be mad. You don't do relationships anyway," he stated. "I'll see you next time." He reached for his car keys in his pocket and walked out the door.

"He's right, you know," Katie piped up once more. "It's better if you just stay friends with him. If a relationship really worked so well, you two wouldn't have had to break up so many times. I know that this noona is the first girl he's been going out on dates with ever since you two called it quits for like, the umpteenth time, but I can tell you, he's not taking her seriously. She's just one of the managers at his office, and you know how he is around the ladies. He breathes, and all the women fall for him."

"How come  _you_  don't, then?"

Katie snorted. "Seriously? I wouldn't go after my ancestor's ex. That would just be weird."

Katie was Danielle's human descendant. Danielle was born in 1594, in a backward village in England. As a human, she was married but was soon widowed as her husband died of a sickness. After that, she never remarried but got knocked up by another man, and when the other villagers found out about it, she was disgraced, beaten, imprisoned, starved, and sentenced to be stoned to death. However, this was witnessed by a vampire who resided in the village. He took pity on her, especially the innocent unborn baby, and believed that they did not deserve to die, so he tried to find a way to keep both of them safe. He broke her out of jail, but she was too weak to escape as she had just taken a beating. As a result, he had to feed her his vampire blood, which had healing properties. It strengthened her and put her in a better condition to flee the village. She ran and tried to get as far away from her village as possible. Eventually she boarded a merchant ship, but it got raided by pirates, and she got killed along with the rest of the crew. She was 23 at the time. But as she still had vampire blood in her system, it had revived her. Within a 24-hour time frame she was able to consume human blood by drinking from one of the dead sailors, thus completing the transition and turning into a vampire. She continued to sail and soon reached Calais where she gave birth to her illegitimate kid — still fully human — who bore her surname. That child grew up to have children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and this bloodline was now stretched to 20-year-old Katie. Danielle had raised every generation of her descendants, moving around constantly and taking on a new identity every now and then to minimize suspicions of her immortality. For example, two decades ago she claimed to be Katie's mother, but now they pretended to be cousins.

"Whatever." Danielle threw her hands up in the air, no longer eager to talk about Baekhyun. "You know what, let's just eat."

And eat they did. Over dinner, they did a lot of catching up. Danielle shared anecdotes from her trip to Japan, while Katie opened up about her new relationship.

Katie worked part-time as a waitress at a café, and one day the demon Kim Junmyeon just waltzed into the café and into her life. Of course, she did not know at first that he was not human. He just smiled innocently at her and gave her a wink as he would to any girl he found pretty enough for him, and immediately she was drawn to him. She was too preoccupied with checking him out that she had accidentally spilled water onto a customer, who got angry and was about to berate her for her carelessness if it were not for Junmyeon who had noticed this and had lent a helping hand by instantly cleaning up the mess with his superpower — which was water. And as Katie had grown up learning about the supernatural, she began to suspect that he was more than what he looked like. So when he decided that he rather fancied her, he tried to give her his number by writing it on a napkin before taking his leave, yet she threw it away because for all she knew, he could be powerful enough to hurt her. She was thankful to him but would rather not get close to him. He must have noticed that his little plan had failed, as a few days later he had returned to the café and waited for her to finish work when she would be too tired to turn him down. This time, it worked, and she agreed to have a round of drinks with him. They talked, did not deny the attraction, and were going to kiss but their liplock got blocked by none other than  _Baekhyun_  who had just entered the bar with his date, the manager noona. When he recognized Katie and saw that Junmyeon was a demon, he had interrupted them for Katie's protection because right before Danielle went on vacation, she had asked Baekhyun (as friends) to watch out for Katie while she was away. It was only after Baekhyun was able to ascertain that Junmyeon's business on earth posed no threat to Katie that she was 'allowed' to keep seeing him. Eventually she did go out with him, and one thing led to another.

"I know, Junmyeon and I haven't known each other for long but I think he's a really great guy, and he has  _got_  to be the hottest guy I have ever laid eyes on. Plus, I feel like we click really well and I can be open with him about what I want and what I like, you know? Even when it comes to...intimate stuff," Katie revealed, but she was only willing to do so because she knew Danielle would not be judgmental about it. "We're not very serious or committed at the moment so technically, it's not really a relationship. But it just feels nice to let loose and have a little fun. I think I need it. I haven't felt this...liberated and happy in a long time now."

"I'm so glad you've found someone who can make you feel this way then," Danielle replied warmly. "Have you been taking your meds though? And have you been eating well?"

"My mealtimes are more regular now. I don't always have an appetite but still...I don't binge-eat or starve myself anymore. It was really destructive and I...I don't want to abuse my body anymore," Katie sighed. "But then...the thing is...between my anxiety medication and antidepressants...I haven't exactly been taking my birth control pills as I should," she admitted. "I...may or may not have missed a day or two. But I also haven't gotten my period in a few months now because of my eating disorder, so I don't know for sure..."

Danielle's heart skipped a beat. She paused for a moment to think about this calmly, before replying, "you should still take a test to be sure. Until we know for certain whether or not you're pregnant, don't worry, alright?" She patted Katie's hand. "No matter what the result is, I'll still be here for you. If you're available tomorrow, come with me to the hospital. I'll run a test for you and we'll have our answer."

Katie nodded obediently. She trusted and needed her foremother, and vice versa. Katie might be no less weak and mortal like other puny humans, but she meant everything to Danielle, being the only family she had left.

Danielle found herself unable to sleep that night, even though she was supposed to get up early for work the next morning. Troubling thoughts about Katie and her relationship with Junmyeon were keeping the vampire awake and made her feel uneasy. She wanted Katie to be happy and she was able to give the human girl some reassurance regarding the possibility of a pregnancy, and of course she would appear to be strong and level-headed, but deep inside she could not even convince herself that everything was going to be fine. It would not have been a big deal if Katie really was pregnant and the baby's father was human. But a demon? This did not sound like good news.


	3. The Vampire Doctors

Being immortal has its perks, but it could also be exhausting. For instance, vampires like Danielle had to move from one town to another every now and then, maybe even live under a different name to avoid suspicion of their immortality, and take up human jobs to blend in with mortals. Right now, in Seoul, Danielle had taken on the identity of a doctor, just like her vampire friend Kyungsoo. And today, Danielle had brought Katie to the hospital that she and Kyungsoo worked in. She instructed a nurse to collect Katie’s blood sample to run the pregnancy test, while she herself went to Kyungsoo’s office.

Kyungsoo, or Doctor Do, had popped to the blood bank to grab a blood bag as his morning snack. While he was away, it gave someone the perfect opportunity to sneak into his office. Not Danielle but, rather, someone who could pose harm to him. A hunter had sneaked into his office and was now hiding there. For a week now, this hunter, disguised as a janitor, had been lurking in the hospital, stalking and observing Kyungsoo and plotting to take him down. Hunters took down all supernatural creatures and aimed to rid the world of the supernatural. Now having learned Kyungsoo’s routines and habits, the hunter was ready to strike.

Still clueless, an unsuspecting Kyungsoo had returned to his office, blithely opening the blood bag he had stolen. B-negative was one of his favorites, but when he took a sip, he knew something was wrong, very wrong. His throat and digestive tract burned and he cried out hoarsely in pain, clutching his chest. He was beginning to feel drowsy and feverish as he fell to his knees.

“Vervain,” he hissed, easily identifying what his drink was laced with. Vervain was a potent herb, and among a vampire’s most well-known weaknesses. He coughed and choked and struggled to breathe, spilling the blood bag’s contents all over the floor. He didn’t care that his work clothes were soaked in blood; it hurt to move but he still had to attempt to crawl to the door to try to get help. Yet that was when the hunter had stepped out from her hiding spot. Not only was she blocking Kyungsoo’s way, she was also kicking his hands with her boots to further incapacitate him. Swiftly she proceeded to lock the door with practiced ease. The metallic scrapes and rattles of the deadbolt were normally dull, but this time the clang sounded more ominous than ever, and the final thud echoed in the room like a beating heart.

Never had Kyungsoo thought he would be ambushed like this. No, this could not be how he would die. He had already died once as a human...and he was not prepared to die as a vampire either. And he was given a reason to stay hopeful when amidst his struggle he heard knocks on the door and Danielle’s voice, asking him if he was alright. He could not catch his breath, let alone reply, but he fought and tried to get back on his feet, only to crumble again as the vervain was spreading to all parts of his body. Clumsily he had knocked over many items on his table, from stationery to some patients’ medical records. The room was spinning, but he could still make out that the hunter was holding a cutlass in her hand, ready to decapitate him — one of the most direct ways to kill a vampire.

The hunter was ready to swing the blade, but was interrupted when the door was busted down and Danielle stomped into the room. When the unmistakable scent of the spilled blood had assaulted her nostrils, and combined with the noises caused by a series of objects falling to the floor, she could only deduce that her fellow colleague was in danger. Now that her suspicions were confirmed, she snarled at the hunter, fangs on display and her eyes were bloodshot. The hunter was quick to react as well. Seeing as Kyungsoo was defenseless, yet this intruder was just as much a vampire as the original target was, the hunter decided to fight and kill Danielle as well. Danielle was surprised when her opponent went for her abdomen first as she was expecting her neck to be targeted. With a timely step back, the vampire narrowly avoided the blade which only sliced her lab coat. Yet she was now in a bowing position and that placed her head and neck closer to her opponent. The hunter did not waste this chance, aiming her cutlass right at the bloodsucker’s jaw, but Danielle was quicker, dodging the blade rather effortlessly.

Biting her lip, the hunter went for her target’s midriff again. This time Danielle used one hand to grip the hunter’s arm, strong enough to block the incoming slash, the other hand grabbing her opponent by the throat and throwing her across the room with inhuman force. With a loud thud and a yelp, she landed on an armchair by the curtains, keeping her blade in front of her torso. Scrambling to her feet, she made the mistake of throwing herself right at a much stronger creature, thinking she could stake the cutlass right through the vampire’s heart and killing it. Danielle would prove her wrong by catching her wrist and squeezing her arm so forcefully that she screeched and dropped the weapon. As soon as it fell to the floor, Danielle had kicked it away, conveniently sending it under Kyungsoo’s desk so that its owner could not easily retrieve it. The relief she experienced when Danielle let go of her forearm was short-lived as vampires knew no mercy for hunters, a lesson she would surely learn when she was hurled against the wall. Still, she was not dumb enough to be equipped with just one blade. From the pockets of her leather jacket she had conjured a set of brass knuckles. Once more ready, she attacked, but Danielle had blocked the incoming right fist. Again, she was not dumb enough to use only her upper limbs. She raised and extended her right leg, but Danielle had grabbed it and twisted it. The pain had made her shriek and lose her balance. She limped away and forced herself to get back on her feet, but as soon as she did, she got kicked in the shins, which destroyed her plans to swing a punch with her non-dominant hand as it got facilely shoved away. Danielle understood that she held the upper hand here, and so fought with even more confidence and competence, sending her opponent tumbling backward.

The human might be weak yet her determination was strong; it could not be thwarted and she kept trying with whichever limb(s) hurt the least. She raised her right leg once again, but missed Danielle. Taking advantage of the hunter’s smaller frame, Danielle grabbed her by the torso and threw her onto the floor, causing her to land on her stomach. But once Danielle had turned her over, she revealed yet another weapon hidden in her jacket: a smaller knife. She had slashed it across Danielle’s face, narrowly missing her eye. Danielle yelped at the cut as her cheek burned, instinctively turning her face away from her opponent who had enough time to stand up. She tried again with her knife but Danielle knew better, suspending it mid-air and grabbed her by the throat again, choking the hunter. Danielle jerked her head backward and then violently bumped it into the hunter’s forehead, at the same time letting go of her altogether so that she was once more sent backward, the knife flying out of her hand. The vampire followed it up with a punch right across her opponent’s cheek then kneed her hip, making her bow and making it that much easier for Danielle to place her hand on the hunter’s neck to run her head sideways into the wall. Whimpering, the human slid down to the floor but Danielle picked up the knife and also picked her up by the shirt and punched her face repeatedly then placed the knife to her neck. Whereas Danielle’s cut healed quickly, the human’s face was now bloodied and her expressions contorted in disgust and rage. Danielle knew she could not let this hunter live, but she could most definitely drain this human and it would be a fulfilling meal that she and Kyungsoo could share.

Just as Danielle was about to sink her fangs into the hunter’s neck, however, the thrill of getting to treat herself to this big meal and the sense of fulfillment at having defeated and subdued a hunter were both shattered.

Coolly and unhurriedly, a tall man had entered the messy office, and instantly all eyes were on him. He was in formal business attire, his eyes calmly scanning the perimeters of the room as he absentmindedly adjusted his tie. He looked unimpressed when he saw Kyungsoo feebly feeding from the hunter’s ankle, in an attempt to recover.

The man’s eyes — dark, sinister eyes that either intimidated you or aroused you, or both — then landed on the hunter. He approached her and tapped her on the forehead twice. Immediately she went unconscious and fell to the floor.

“Did you...kill her?” Danielle questioned the man, more disappointed than surprised, her tone belligerent and her frown disapproving.  _She_  had beaten the hunter fair and square, therefore  _she_  was the one who deserved to decide what to do with the human’s pathetic life.

Finally, the man’s lazy gaze met Danielle’s unfriendly stare. He paid attention to her last even though she was the one holding the most control in the room. She frowned warily at him, and was ready to fight him too if she found that necessary. He remained unfazed, however, and merely blinked at her. When he opened his eyes again they were completely black, not just the irises but even the whites. He blinked once more and his eyes returned to normal, looking like a human’s.

Without needing to exchange a single word, Danielle then understood that this man was a demon. A low-ranking demon, as denoted by his black eyes, which made Danielle feel confident that she could rip him from limb to limb while sipping champagne. But from him radiated a certain elegance that had rendered her immobile and breathless. She also instinctively knew that it was not just the knowledge that demon blood was lethal to vampires that made her not want to harm him. Maybe it was because she did not have it in her to destroy such perfection, in his tall build, his broad shoulders, his narrow glabella, and everything else. Throughout the centuries she had lived, seldom had she seen such untouchable beauty.

He, however, simply blinked again then looked away. She might have been offended if she had jumped to the conclusion that he must have decided that she was not even worth the eye contact. The truth, however, was just that the young demon did not dare look such a powerful vampire in the eye. He was not trying to be impolite.

“Don’t worry about her,” he stated cautiously. Better be more careful on his first mission. “We need her alive for now.”

“‘We’?” Danielle folded her arms in disagreement. “You mean  _you_. Who are you anyway?”

He straightened up and stood tall. “My name is Oh Sehun,” he revealed. “Junior Agent in the Ministry of Defense, Asia-Pacific Division.”

The name did not register. The job title made a bit of sense to Danielle, though. “But as far as I know, you demons shouldn't be here unless you're on a mission.” She was too displeased to sound anything less than confident, but she was not really that sure of herself. It had, after all, been a couple centuries since she last dated a demon. She might not be that up-to-date with how things worked in Hell.

“I'm exactly where my mission requires me to be. But this is not a solo mission. The entire Ministry of Defense is on it,” Sehun explained. “We are going to rid this earth of the most powerful clan of hunters. The Campbells.”

Chills ran down Danielle’s spine at the mention of the Campbell clan. Initially, it was fear and sorrow that coursed through her, lacing together like two helices of DNA. Gone was her brave, badass front when a pained expression flashed across her face. The exhilaration at her previous victory against the hunter had completely evanesced. She faltered for a moment and every emotion made way for rage to come through and take over her. She could never forget what the Campbells had done to her and the people who meant the world to her.


	4. The Vampire's Bad Blood

20 years ago, when Katie Creighton was a few months old, she lost her mother, and for this the Campbells were responsible. While Katie herself might have no recollection of the loss, the same could not be said for her 400-year-old foremother Danielle, who could never forgive the Campbells for what they had done.

The Campbell clan first emerged in the early 1900s, starting out as a small family of hunters with crude, inferior weapons but strong determination to hunt the supernatural. They would not stop breeding, and now there were hundreds of Campbell hunters, sharing the same vision but with operations all over the world. Particularly in recent decades, their equipment had evolved to be so superior that they were carrying out mass executions on incubi. Most supernatural species feared them, even more so when they had almost made shapeshifters go extinct. To cope with this growing threat, vampires had abandoned their solitary lifestyles and began to live in nests much like how werewolves would always be in packs, with the hopes of protecting themselves from extermination. Danielle was no exception. She formed a vampire nest with half a dozen vampire friends in an attempt to keep herself and her family safe, but it seemed to have backfired.

At the time, Katie’s mother Viola was a human woman in her mid-twenties, very attractive and highly skilled in martial arts, but that still was not enough to keep her alive. She and young daughter lived with Danielle’s nest of vampires, and she had a special function to serve: she was in charge of their food supply. Of course that did not mean that she was their human blood bag; that was too unsustainable. She would make use of her beauty and charm to bring unsuspecting victims to the nest for her vampire companions to feed on. It was usually homeless people that the vampires instructed Viola to capture. The logic was that they usually had no family or friends or anybody who cared about them, so it would be less likely that anyone would come after the nest in search of the ‘missing’ victims. All was well until one of her targets happened to be a Campbell hunter disguised as a beggar. Rather than successfully capturing the target, Viola herself got kidnapped. Under torture, she had disclosed the nest’s location. Within the day, the hunters had returned Viola to the nest only to fatally shoot her in front of the entire nest which then got wiped out mercilessly, except for Danielle who was barely able to escape with baby Katie. She knew they had no alternative but to flee and relocate to another continent altogether.

Facing the demon agent in the room, Danielle gritted her teeth, and her hands curled into fists. “I didn’t know that Campbell hunters had operations outside of America now,” she croaked, her voice shaky.

“They’re all over the world,” Sehun revealed grimly. “They’ve expanded so much in number.”

“Then why aren’t you killing her?” Danielle demanded, kicking the unconscious hunter at her feet. “You mind if I do the honors?”

“I would ask you not to. Because my job is to take her back to Hell for questioning, so that we can obtain intel on her family members’ whereabouts. These Campbells like to think they are good at interrogation. We’re going to prove that we can do it better and crack them. Once they cease to be useless, we can kill them,” Sehun explained. “I mean,  _you_  can,” he added.

But Danielle did not want to let the hunter live another moment. “And if I don’t care about what you’re here to do? She tried to kill me and my colleague,” she gestured at Kyungsoo who was convalescing in a corner. “Solely for that, she deserves to die.” Not to mention they needed to pay for what they had done to her nest and Viola.

“You want revenge?” Sehun asked curiously. “Punishment?” He prodded. “Death is mercy. You sure she’s deserving of that?”

Danielle thought about it. What could be worse than death? Neverending torment, of course. Physical and mental agony. In fact, for a Campbell, or perhaps for any hunter, the last thing they would want was to turn into a creature that they would have hunted. They would hate themselves — forever, actually, because of immortality — if that were to happen to them. That was way worse a punishment than death. It might be heavy enough a penalty to bring about what Danielle considered justice.

“Fine then,” she concluded. “Take her. But not before I do this,” she hissed diabolically, then bared her fangs and bit hard into her own wrist. She lifted the unconscious hunter’s body by the collar and brought her bleeding wrist to the girl’s mouth, making sure she had ingested the vampire blood. Danielle then had the girl’s neck snapped, knowing full well that this would cause her to turn into a vampire. She dropped the lifeless body to the ground in disgust, and then the demon effortlessly picked it up, as if it weighed no more than a feather, throwing it over his shoulder. Oh, yes, those broad shoulders.

Sehun turned on his heel and exited Kyungsoo’s office. The moment he was out of sight, Danielle wished she had not forgotten his name.

* * *

For the next few days, both Danielle and Kyungsoo lived in constant wariness and with caution. It was driving them insane as they could not figure out how the hunter had discovered that Kyungsoo was a vampire. They did not feel safe at all but possibly even more important than protecting themselves was keeping their loved ones safe, the humans that they lived with and cared about deeply. For Kyungsoo it was his best friend Jongin, an ex-demon but now a neutralized human. For Danielle it was Katie — as well as the unborn baby. Yes, the results came back and confirmed that Katie was indeed pregnant — with the demon Junmyeon’s child.

“Oh my goodness,” Katie squeaked. Curling up in fetal position on her bed she hugged her knees to her chest. “Are you mad?” She chewed on her lip and looked up at Danielle timorously. She felt foolish for being apprehensive even with Danielle as they were so close...but this seemed bigger than anything she had ever been through before.

“No, baby, of course not,” Danielle gushed in reassurance. She sat down next to Katie and wrapped an arm around her to pat her on the shoulder in support and squeeze her arm.

“You sure? ‘Cause I...I don’t want you to think it’s a disgrace, you know? You remember that classmate I had back in freshman year of high school? She got expelled when the school found out she got pregnant and it just seems everybody’s only got shame and blame for young unmarried women with a kid on the way,” Katie shuddered, her hand going to her belly immediately.

“Oh, sweetheart. Good thing we don’t live in the 17th century anymore, right? ‘Cause back then, yes, it was such a big deal and I was going to be stoned to death for getting knocked up…” Danielle uttered. “I won’t allow anybody to shame you or blame you, especially not yourself. You might not have intended to get pregnant, and neither did I, but even if that’s a problem, it’s  _our_ problem now, and no one has the right to judge us.”

Katie nodded meekly. “I just don’t want to be an inconvenience to anybody, especially to you.”

“No way. You are most certainly not getting rid of me that easily,” Danielle joked, gently ruffling Katie’s hair and giving her an affectionate boop on the nose. “So you’re going to keep the baby?” She asked calmly but not dispassionately.

“Yes…” Katie answered. “Unless you don’t want me to?”

Danielle stifled a sigh and decided to clarify a few things. “Katie, I’m not displeased that you got pregnant unexpectedly. But I will tell you honestly that I’m worried that a demon-human hybrid would draw attention from not just various supernatural species but also from hunters, and that could be potentially dangerous for us and the people around us,” she explained. “But, you’ll still get the freedom to decide for yourself whether or not you want to keep the baby, because it’s  _your_  baby and I will be ready to give you my full support no matter what you choose. I want you to know that, okay?”

“Yes, mama,” Katie nodded again. She smiled then rested her head on Danielle’s shoulder.

Danielle grinned. “Aren’t you way too old to be calling me that?”

“Well, you did raise me,” Katie giggled softly.

“And I’ll help you raise your child too, if you need it,” Danielle offered, holding Katie’s hand. Her love and support for her family was unconditional.

“Oh gosh yes. I definitely need it. I can barely piece my life together. I honestly don’t know what I’d do with this life growing inside me,” Katie sighed, pointing at her tummy. “But I’m also not letting go of it. And I should tell Junmyeon about this.”

“Yeah, I suppose he deserves to know. Can you have him come over for lunch sometime?” Danielle suggested. “I’d like to meet the father of my unborn descendant.”

“Of course. I’ll call him now,” Katie agreed.

Just as she unlocked her phone, though, the doorbell rang, followed by loud, impatient knocks. But the two women were not expecting anybody.

“SMPA! Open up!”

Both of them froze. What was the police doing here?

* * *

“I’ll go get it,” Danielle volunteered, hopping off the bed.

From the peephole, the two tall and burly men at the door looked intimidating and even Danielle, with her vampiric strength, felt threatened. Leery of them, she held back for a moment, frowning and narrowing her eyes in suspicion. Police badges could be fabricated — what if they were actually hunters? She was borderlining on paranoia these days and she did not want to take any risks. But if these men were really cops...

Figuring that it would be a huge hassle if the police had to bust the door down and break into the apartment, Danielle decided to open the door.

“Officers? May I help you?” She asked. On the outside it might seem like she was perfectly able to remain calm and collected but on the inside, she was on edge and ready to attack anytime.

“We’re investigating a case of a missing person: Heidi Campbell,” one of the officers explained and showed Danielle a few pictures of the hunter that she had subdued last week at Kyungsoo’s office. “Have you seen her before?”

Danielle licked her lips and perfunctorily took a glance at each of the pictures. She also tried to hold back from glowering at them for fear that it would give the wrong impression. She sincerely hoped that this Heidi Campbell along with all of her fellow hunter relatives that the demons must have captured were suffering now at the hands of Hell’s best torturers.

“Nope, I don’t remember ever seeing this person before. Sorry,” Danielle shrugged and handed the photos back to the officer. When she looked up again she found that the other officer was holding a compass in his hand, which she found really weird. She could not even remember the last time she had seen with her own eyes somebody using a compass, and not even a digital one. Momentarily surprised and puzzled, she had not seen it coming when the two officers aggressively each held out a small spray bottle, aiming them at her and raining a colorless liquid all over her like applying pesticide to crops. When her skin began to burn, she screeched in pain as she realized that this substance must be very concentrated vervain. Disoriented by the extreme scorching pain, she stepped back from the door, easily letting the policemen — who she now realized must have been be hunters in disguise — into the flat.

Katie, who was on the phone with Junmyeon, was alarmed by Danielle’s shrieks and the subsequent intrusion. Albeit defenseless, she dropped her phone and rushed outside her room to see what was going on. She screamed when she saw Danielle’s skin corroding and rotting, and of course her first instinct was to throw herself at the vampire, but then vervain was sprayed in her face as well. She flinched, but on the whole remained relatively unaffected. The two officers were taken aback to discover that Katie was not a vampire.

Katie stood right in front of Danielle, who could barely stay on her feet. The pain was extremely debilitating and she really thought she was going to die soon. Katie tried to protect Danielle from the hunters. She could only use her petite body as she was not armed, unlike the two men who had not pistols but rather, corvos. Bullets could hardly harm vampires whereas decapitation surely worked. At the sight of the blades, Katie trembled in fear, but there was no doubt that she would protect Danielle with her mortal human life.

“It’s not working,” growled the officer with the compass, then pointed angrily at Katie. “She’s the source of the block!”

Rather than using the blades on Katie, one of them simply grabbed her and pulled her out of the way so that the other could annihilate Danielle. They were hunters, she was a vampire — there could be no other way around this. They were going to take her down just like they would do with any other supernatural creature they had encountered. The Campbells never made exceptions.

Katie fought with all her might, and not just with her limbs. She might not have fangs, but when she saw the opportunity to bite her opponent’s hand to get him to let go of her, she took it. To her relief, it worked, especially when she was lucky enough to manage to take advantage of his one moment of vulnerability and follow it up with a kick to his crotch. Immediately he bounced off her and yelped in pain, but it was not loud enough to cover the noise of a vase breaking.

Meanwhile, Danielle was weakened and was kept in a disadvantageous position. She was aching all over and would not have been strong enough to keep the broken vase to use as her weapon even if it did not get knocked out of her hand by her assailant who had pounced onto her. But Katie also leaped onto him and it was messy like an extremely unappealing burger. She attempted to snatch the corvo out of his hand, and she did succeed but at a hefty price: she lost her balance and fell to the floor unceremoniously. This was witnessed by the first officer she had dealt with, who seemed to have recovered from her unskilled attacks by now, and he did not hesitate to pull his gun out and shoot her in the back.

If Danielle still had the energy to scream, she would. She would scream at the top of her lungs if that could spare Katie any kind of danger or pain. But she could not make a sound, in spite of the rage that consumed her. Even breathing was painful and difficult when her skin was sizzling like steak. Although the effect of the vervain was subsiding, it still felt like an eternity of suffering, and having to witness Katie get shot but not being able to do anything about it was really the final nail in the coffin.

She really could not fight off more hunters. Too many things seemed to be happening all at once, yet she was viewing everything in slow motion as she still tried to fight off two hunters at the same time in her feeble state. She regretted opening the door in the first place and sank into a bottomless pit of despair.

The next loud noise that Danielle heard indicated to her that someone had hurriedly entered the apartment.  _Please, no_ , she thought to herself. But if only she knew who the intruders were.


	5. The Vampire's Rescue

It did not take Junmyeon long to realize that something had gone very wrong when his conversation with Katie was cut short. Fortunately she did not hang up, so he could pretty much hear the fight over the phone. He knew he had to go to her rescue, and he brought backup with him: his junior, Sehun.

When the two demons arrived at the apartment, they found that the door was already open, and walked in to see both women subdued and on the ground. Immediately, Junmyeon’s heart sank, but without hesitation he had separated Katie from her assailant, grabbing him by his throat and lifting him off the ground. Just his grip on the hunter’s neck would be enough to suffocate, but no, that was not all that the demon was doing. Junmyeon was able to use his powers to fill the hunter’s lungs with water while staring at him murderously. Within a matter of seconds, he had essentially drowned. Junmyeon then dropped him to the floor.

At the same time, Sehun took care of the other officer by tackling him to the ground. His moves were always subtle; that was his style. Never dramatic, and likewise his facial expression showed no change. His eerily calm façade gave nothing away but a lot was actually going on and he was already using his powers in a way that surely his opponent would not have seen coming: the hunter now had air bubbles in his veins, creating venous air embolisms. Once the air bubbles traveled to his brain, or his heart, or his lungs — depending on which organ they would first reach — he would die of a stroke, or a heart attack, or respiratory failure. But Sehun was not going to waste his time watching a Campbell die; he had a dying vampire to attend to, and he did not expect it to be the very vampire that he had encountered last week, who also happened to be living with his Junmyeon-hyung’s girlfriend-slash-baby-mama.

Danielle was gasping for air and convulsing. When the vervain came into contact with her skin it felt like she was on fire but now, she could not stop shivering, and it was so cold. Was this what death felt like? Was it all just going to end like this? After living for over 400 years...was this it?

Sehun grabbed one of the freshly dead hunters to slice his wrist open with one of the pieces of the broken vase, then shoved the wound into Danielle’s open mouth. She used what energy she had to drink from him. She knew she needed that blood intake in order to recover from the vervain attack. Blood from a dead human was not as revitalizing as blood from a living human, but it would have to do because there was no other choice. Demon blood was not an option as it was toxic to vampires. Katie was a human, sure, but now that she was pregnant with a demon’s baby, drinking her blood would probably kill a vampire too.

Speaking of Katie, she did indeed get shot but it was a tranquilizer dart. The hunter had not meant to kill her, only to subdue her, as they had yet to learn if she was more useful to them dead or alive, so it would be wiser to capture her and bring her back to the Campbell regional headquarters to decide what to do with her. All of this had to do with a device that the Campbells had invented, which was the compass that the two officers were equipped with when they raided the Creighton apartment. It served the purpose of detecting a vampire’s presence by pointing toward the nearest bloodsucker. That was how they knew Danielle was a vamp, but the device glitched when they stood closer to Katie than to Danielle. The needles were spinning rapidly and continuously, and they understood that she was ‘the source of the block’, although technically, Katie herself was not the block. Rather, it was the baby in her womb. A half-demon, half-human child belonging to an extremely rare species: a Cambion. It was a huge ball of power that was strong enough to disable the Campbell device and interfere with how it picks up on vampiric signals. But no hunter knew of Katie’s pregnancy and therefore could only conclude that she, a mere human, was powerful enough to render the device useless.

Junmyeon left the scene to Sehun to handle as he had to take Katie to the hospital quick. Even if the tranquilizer dart would not kill her, the fall from wrestling with the hunter had given her grave injuries. However, on the way, Katie had regained consciousness, which was humanly impossible given the potency of the tranquilizer dart that was supposed to keep her knocked out for many hours. How come?

“J-Junmyeon?” Katie croaked once she came to, finding herself in Junmyeon’s arms. “What happened? Where are we? How’s Danielle? Where is she? The policemen...what did they do to her? Is she alive? How am  _I_  still alive?”

“Hush,” said Junmyeon softly. They were fortunate enough to be passing by a park, creepy because it was rather secluded, but it provided the quietness and calmness they sought, so he gently put her down and they sat on the park bench so that he could answer her questions. “Danielle’s gonna be fine, Sehun will know what to do with her. And you’re fine. Your recovery speed is impressive, and you know why? I think it’s because…” his hand went to her tummy.

Katie blinked and glanced down before looking back up at him. “Because of our baby? It saved me?”

Junmyeon nodded. “It’s a lot more powerful than you think. You were supposed to be unconscious for hours, but it’s only been minutes and here you are.”

Katie placed her hand atop Junmyeon’s, happily absorbing his warmth. “You came for me,” she began, and tried to find the words to say but she did not have to. He knew what she wanted to ask.

“I heard your screams over the phone and I...I realized that I didn’t want to lose you.” His explanation was simple and straightforward but not without emotion. He took her hand in his and squeezed it, interlocking their fingers. He would not even give her the chance to say with apprehension that surely she did not mean that much to him. Here were a small, feeble human girl and a powerful demon meant to live for a long, long time — what could they expect from each other? “I know what you're gonna say.” He placed a finger at her lips. “But please don't think too much about the future. Just...as long as you want to be with me now. It makes no sense to live forever unless we can live in the present moment. And we’re not getting any younger, are we?”

“You don't need to use my mortality to convince a girl who already wants to be with you,” Katie smiled, and it had meant so much to him. “Yes, we should be together for real.”

* * *

By now Danielle had drained both policemen. Having ingested sufficient human blood, once more she was full of energy, and also full of rage due to the assault. With her fangs on full display and bloodshot eyes, it would be foolish to take her as a Halloween joke.

“I thought you demons were supposed to be annihilating entire clans of hunters. What the fuck is this?!” Danielle seethed, pacing around the extremely messy living room and bellowing at Sehun. She was quick to conclude that these hunters were likely to be Campbells, considering their technology.

The demon stood rather still and looked calm if not for the frown that denoted his confusion and dismay. “I'm sorry?” He thought he had heard her wrong. He did just save her life yet judging from the way she was acting and speaking to him, it did not look like he was her savior. He was expecting himself to be the last person she would direct her understandable anger onto.

“‘Sorry’?” Danielle snorted, mistaking it for a real apology. She was too furious that she was  _hearing_  what Sehun was saying but not  _listening_  to him. “Demon, I don't know what your orders were, but honestly you suck at doing your job. Last I checked, y'all were supposed to be killing Campbell hunters, NOT WAITING FOR THEM TO ATTACK INNOCENTS AND  _THEN_  KILL THEM!!”

Sehun blinked. “I was commanded to capture them, not k—”

“That's  _not_  what I give a damn about; I care about  _my_  safety and  _Katie’s_  and her  _baby’s_ , but I don't even know where they are or if they're alive!” Tears streamed down her face, each drop trickling like blood from a burst vein.

“Please, just, just calm down…” Sehun gently placed a hand on Danielle’s shoulder in an attempt to soothe her, but her instincts made her slap it away defensively.

Sehun looked rather lost, addled about Danielle’s misdirected fury, and even more so about his own emotions at the moment. As a demon, his emotional capacity or range was of course going to be different than a human’s, but he felt his heart sink. Such a...such a foreign sensation that he could not put his finger on. Could this mean that he was...possibly, upset? He could not fathom it.

“Well I'm sorry I'm unable to stay calm after almost getting killed,” Danielle snarled. “It felt like needles getting injected into my skull, you try that and then we’ll see how calm you can be.”

Sehun was frustrated now. “Good thing I saved your life then, huh?” He retorted halfheartedly, unable to respond with much else but negativity because that was what he was being fed.

“I don't need anyone to save me!” Danielle hissed loudly, pushing Sehun by his shoulders to put more distance between the two of them. “Especially not a rookie demon like you. I’m a 400-year-old vampire. Seriously, who do you think you are…”

Sehun was going to roll his eyes at the vampire who clearly needed saving given the crisis just now, but he froze at getting called a rookie demon and his face fell.  _Ouch_. He had always been insecure about being one of the youngest and least experienced demon agents. He had spent his time training to become an agent almost in a constant state of anxiety. It was so easy to screw up and so many things could go wrong. He was not always given the chance to try and show his ability, so it was not at all easy for him to build his confidence. He was not sure if Danielle had gone on to throw further insults at him, whether or not she had really meant it or if she was just unleashing her exasperation in a destructive way. Physically he was not hurt but emotionally he was, and he just wanted to leave.

“You know what, just get out of my house,” Danielle decreed, putting one hand on her hip and rubbing her forehead with the other. Her skin healed but her headache had not gone away yet.

Sehun gulped. He was not trying to make her feel incompetent, nor was he deliberately saving her life and killing a Campbell just to prove to himself or anybody that he was capable of that, powerful enough to do all of that without breaking a sweat. Now he felt like shit. “Yeah…” he uttered, crestfallen. “I should probably go.”

He turned on his heel and paced to the door, each step as heavy as an anvil. That was when he saw his Junmyeon-hyung returning, holding hands with Katie, the both of them wearing radiant smiles. Smiles denoted happiness, Sehun recalled, but he could not remember the last time he was ever  _happy_.

He did not look back as he heard the women having an emotional reunion. He kept walking, Danielle’s words ringing in his head and bringing to mind so many other snide comments that he had received. But presently there was another thought that sent chills down his spine. How would Senior Management react when they would no doubt very soon receive news that he and Junmyeon had taken the liberty to kill two of the hunters that they were commanded to merely capture? They would not be able to obtain information about the rest of the clan from two  _dead_  Campbells. He licked his lips and chewed on them in worry, shivering even though it was a warm night. It was late but sleep was the last thing on his mind. Right now, he had better make sure that the rest of the Campbell clan would not come after the family members that they had just lost. He also needed to continue tracking them down and from now on, he had better follow his orders closely.


	6. The Vampire's Apology

In spite of her close encounter with death, in the next few days Danielle had reason to be happy and it was because Katie had found happiness in a relationship with Junmyeon, who came over to visit every day and they talked about their future and raising their child together. Even though they were not thinking about getting married, these discussions and had reminded Danielle of her own marriage, back when she was a human.

She was 16 at the time, arranged to marry the boy next door who was about her own age. A typical match in those days. The entire village attended the wedding, offered their blessings to the couple, but their marriage was cut short when he died of an illness. ‘Till death do us part’, indeed.

She found her husband to be a sweet boy and they shared a good relationship even though it was not their choice to be joined in matrimony. It was a pity that they never had any children for he was very fond of kids, especially her little brother who was 10 years her junior. The responsibility of raising her brother had dawned on her as their parents had passed away when he was an infant, so her maternal instincts were honed from a young age.

Throughout these centuries, she had missed both of them dearly. They were her family too, just like Katie, just like Viola, and each generation of her descendants — pieces of her that had made her whole. She remembered how much it warmed her heart to see her husband play a fatherly role to her brother, even if it was when the latter had misbehaved, like that time he had said thoughtless things to the old lady living at the end of the road and had failed to apologize.

Danielle sighed and brought her walk down memory lane to a halt. Even a 6-year-old had better manners than she did. Indeed she couldn’t stop thinking about her conversation with the rookie demon right after he had saved her life. Admittedly she felt remorseful about the way she spoke to him. She did not even mean the things she had said, but she could not take them back now, could she? That was no way to treat her lifesaver...and she would not even have known that his name was Sehun, if not for Katie’s relationship with Junmyeon.

“I know what you’re thinking.” It was Katie’s voice that made Danielle snap out of her reverie. Katie exited the kitchen and carefully sat down opposite to Danielle, hyperconscious of her every move now that all that was on her mind was her pregnancy. Placing her mug on the dining table, she smiled warmly and took Danielle’s hand. “Your guilt is eating you up alive. But I have something that might alleviate this shitty feeling.”

“Don’t worry about me,” Danielle replied, wearing a weak smile. “I can mend my own mistakes.”

“Oh, but I am glad to see that you’re willing to make amends,” Katie grinned.

“How come you sound like the parent now?” This time Danielle really could not help but chuckle ever so slightly.

“Maybe it’s because I really am about to be a mother,” Katie shrugged and laughed. “Anyway, what I’m talking about is this.” She fished out a business card from the pocket of her cardigan and slid it across the table.

Danielle picked it up and had a good look. “Kim Junmyeon. Senior Agent, Ministry of Defense, Asia-Pacific Division,” she read under her breath. “What do you want me to do with this?” She looked up at Katie and frowned slightly.

“The main point is the address,” Katie pointed to the card. “Junmyeon is flatmates with Sehun. So now you know where to find him.”

“Why would I want to seek him out?”

“Oh, come on,” Katie winked. “You know what for. I know that today is your day off. You’ve no excuse to not go.”

* * *

Stifling a sigh, Danielle stood awkwardly at the door to the flat that the two demons shared for the purpose of this mission. She had pressed the doorbell a few times and waited a couple minutes but nobody came to the door.

_I should just give up already_ , she thought to herself.  _Maybe come at another time_.

But then the door opened, and it was none other than the rookie demon lifesaver himself, dressed in — ah, no, technically he wasn't even dressed. All he had was a bath towel hanging from his hips. His torso was completely exposed, droplets of water clearly remaining on his chest because his hair was not dry yet as he had just stepped out from the shower. This was either a bad time, or impeccable timing.

“Hot damn…” Danielle blurted, her gaze scanning Sehun from head to toe before she cleared her throat. “I, I mean...hello there.”

“Hi…?” Sehun replied hesitantly. “Can I help you?” But then he quickly added, “I mean, not that you need anyone’s help, but…”

“Oh, I, uh...I just…” Danielle’s mind went blank. “I just wanna talk. I promise I won't lash out at you.”

Calm as ever, he stepped aside and invited her in. She could not take her eyes off of him. That body...perfectly sculpted. Literally flawless. Just  _wow_.

But it was her heart-eyed stare that reminded him of the delightful fact that he was basically naked. “I'm gonna go...put some clothes on. Yeah,” he said lamely.

“Oh, no, no!” She squeaked a little too loudly. “I mean, you, you don't have to if you don't want to,” she spluttered, desperate to make a save. “It's a, a warm day outside.” Flustered, she giggled and fanned herself as if for emphasis. “It's a really fine day, and you look really fine as well.”  _Wait, what did I just say?_ Yep, she was sure that she was talking without thinking now.

“You really mean it?” He bit on his lip almost shyly, standing still the whole time. Albeit all his attractive features, he was not used to being complimented.

“Yes I do,” she confirmed with sincerity, shaking off the silliness and embarrassment. “And that reminds me. I should've have said stuff that I don't mean. I'm really sorry about what I said to you the other night. I wasn't in my right mind after the attack, but I know that's no excuse. If I've hurt you or offended you, I apologize. I'd like to be able to make it up to you, if that’s possible. I owe you my life too and I’m really grateful that you came to my rescue. But if you just want me gone...then I can understand that too,” she said, turning away slightly in shame.

“No. I don’t want you gone. I want you around,” he said firmly, stepping closer to her and trying once again to supportively place his hand on her shoulder, even though the last time he did that she reacted badly. This time she did not.

“Then I’ll stay,” she said softly and smoothly but no less earnestly. She dared look into his eyes, dark and intense and just too beautiful. The last thing she wanted to do was look away. She might actually keep her eyes locked on him forever.

“Is...is there a reason why you’re staring at me so intensely?” He asked, tilting his head cutely and scratching his head.

“First of all, it’s called  _gazing_. You know when you go  _star_ gazing. People gaze at beauty, like you,” she laughed gently. “Not my fault you’re so captivating.”

“What? Me? But I’m just a…”  _a rookie demon. Weak in your eyes_ , he thought to himself. He couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud.

“Do you realize you’re unusually attractive? I found you enthralling the first time I’d laid eyes on you. But I just never had a suitable opportunity to tell you about this or fully appreciate you in all your glory…” she beamed.

“Now I definitely want you around.” He began to smile, his facial muscles and expressions reacting before he could consciously register that this emotion was known as joy, mirth, happiness. He was experiencing way more human emotions than his capacity and nature as a demon had allowed him to comprehend, but he liked how he was feeling right now.

“Oh, I’ve got all day,” she chuckled, watching in fondness as his eyes turned into crescents. This was the first time she had seen him smile, and it felt magical. Apart from her family members, there was nobody else who had been able to affect her this way with just a smile — surprisingly it had warmed her heart, and even though it had been 400 years since she had last felt that she was bound by time, it was as if time was slowing down in this moment,  _for_ this moment, where the world was as small as this room and only the two of them existed.

Now to be in this moment, Danielle was even more grateful that Sehun had saved her life. Come to think of it, he really could have let the hunters kill her and then he would unflinchingly take them back to Hell for questioning. But still, he chose to take them down right away and remove the immediate threat that they had posed to her. He was under no obligation; he did not have to do it, but he still did, and that was bizarre to him. A part of him was strong enough to put her safety before his allegiance to Hell. It had worried him and daunted him to some extent that he had this in him — he had seen what had happened to those who had failed to comply with senior management’s commands, and so far he did not feel like he was doing a good job following the orders he was given. But more importantly, he thought he knew now his reasons for choosing to save her life first. And he did not think anybody could fathom these reasons, because not even he himself had seen it coming. Just thinking about it was enough to replace his gorgeous smile with a single teardrop sliding down his handsome face.

Danielle noticed this immediately and was shocked. “Why — why are you crying? What's wrong?” Concern unfolded in her tone as she carefully brushed that teardrop away with her thumb, affectionately caressing his face at the same time. She felt protective over him, wanting to guard that precious, ephemeral moment of happiness he had shown for her.

“Do you know why it means so much to me that I saved your life?” Sehun began solemnly. “I'm a lowly demon. All I've ever done is destroy, and ruin, and wreak havoc, and cause chaos, till there was absolutely nothing left for me to wreck. But that night, in your apartment, I did something that was the complete opposite of what I've a history of doing. Danielle, I know what you do. I know you're a doctor and you save lives, and you do that on a daily basis and that is so wholesome and meaningful. It makes me think that if I've saved someone who saves a lot of lives, then I would've indirectly saved many lives too. It makes me think that...perhaps destruction isn't my only purpose. Perhaps I am more than that,” he gulped and held back more tears although he found it difficult to let them stay pooling in his eyes without falling. This sour feeling of tears welling was foreign to him. He did not like it. Yet he was not sure what he could do to get rid of it either, which only made him feel worse.

For a moment Danielle was stunned. She had no idea what was going on in his beautiful mind, but now that he had opened up to her, she felt connected to him. She was honored that he thought of her this way, but at the same time she was saddened because of how he viewed himself. Surely the thoughtless things she had said to him had helped consolidate his self-defeating cognitions.

“Sehun…” she began, even though she was not certain what she ought to say. She had already hurt him; now she just wanted to hold him like he was the most precious thing in this world. “Of course you’re more than that. You’re worth so much more.”

He sniffled. “It's because of you that I see that I can be more than the chaos I’ve brought about. That I can do more than blindly obey. That I can do good. In spite of my nature.” He pulled her closer to him. “You've made me realize that. That's why I want you around.”

Compliantly she let him hold her, and rested her head on his chest, absorbing his warmth. She did not feel as though she could take credit for his recent realizations, but what she could do was stay by his side and enable him to keep shining in her eyes. “I'll stick around for as long as you want,” she said heartily. “I do have forever.”

“I...I hadn't expected to you mean that much to me,” he murmured, slowly moving his hand to stroke her hair for no particular reason than that he had felt it right to do so, a perception reinforced when she did not stop him.

“I didn't expect you to come into my life, let alone save it. I'm thankful for it, and I know I should've shown it the other night, but it took me some time to figure out why I hadn't done that. It's because…” she sighed. This was more than an explanation she had owed him; it was a confession she had to make to him and, perhaps more importantly, to herself. “I hate needing somebody to protect me. I hate knowing that I can't do it myself. I hate feeling vulnerable. The last time I needed somebody to save my life — that was when I was fleeing my hometown, beaten half to death and with child. I knew I  _never_  wanted to feel that way again, that I had to become stronger, at all costs. And I really thought I was strong enough, until that night...it was humiliating. It made me angry at myself as I felt so weak, and I was so frightened. I couldn't do anything. I needed you. But I also hated that I did.”

“Do you...do you still feel that way?” He asked softly, eyes no longer full of tears but brimming and glimmering with emotion and appreciation.

She smiled warmly. “Not so much. I feel less negative about it all after telling you all these things, even if you might not understand it fully. Or maybe you kinda do, but you're just not accustomed to it so you find it feels foreign. But I've opened up to you and it feels...it feels good, actually. I mean, you've seen me at my most vulnerable time already. What is there that I can't show you?”

He dared stroke her jaw tenderly. “You look at me with so much…” he couldn't find the words to say. Affection? Appreciation? He was slow to figure it out. “Anyway, you're the only one who looks at me this way. Everybody else in Hell — perhaps with the exception of Junmyeon-hyung and Yifan-hyung — looks at me like they know exactly what I'm made of, what I'm capable of, and what I'm not. Some of them even think I'm just gonna get cast out of Hell like my friend Jongin and my senior Yixing. It's belittling and unsettling and disdainful. But it doesn't have to be that way, and they don't always have to be right. Not when you see me differently.”

She gasped. How dare they! “I won't let anybody make you feel that way again,” she said in reassurance. “You may have seen me in a powerless state but never forget what happened to Heidi Campbell before you came along.”

He let go of her suddenly, not sure what had possessed him to do so. He looked just as surprised as she did.

“I haven’t forgotten. I’ll never forget. I felt really intimidated by you. You looked incredibly fierce, and merciless. I knew from the moment I met you that I  _never_ wanted to get on your bad side. Didn’t even dare look you in the eye.” He shuddered at the memory.

“Oh come on,” she giggled and smacked him on the arm playfully. “Demons don't die that easily, and I'm not suicidal enough to drink from you. However I would be interested in drinking  _with_  you.” She winked. “It's happy hour right now. I promise I won't bite, so...care to join me?”


	7. The Vampire's Entanglements

Danielle stepped out of the bathroom, satisfied with the mirror selfies she took. She was ready to attend this evening’s event, a fashion show with the theme being Elizabethan fashion. It was in that era that Danielle had lived as a human.

"I'm ready!" She announced to Katie, who was fully dressed for the occasion and still looking beautiful as ever in spite of her baby bump that created the illusion that she was at least 5 months pregnant already. In truth, she was not that far along, but demon pregnancies progressed a lot faster than human pregnancies.

"I can't wait! For weeks, I've been looking forward to this event," Katie gushed in elation. "Let's go! They're waiting in the car."

"'They'? Junmyeon and who else?" Danielle asked, hoping that the answer she was hoping for was also the one that Katie would deliver.

"You'll see," Katie replied mysteriously.

Danielle did indeed get what she wanted, beaming once she spotted Sehun, handsome as ever, sitting in the car with Junmyeon. She had Sehun's attention throughout the ride and had a lovely chat, but once they had arrived at the arena, his attitude changed. He appeared cold and distant, standing right next to her but his mind was elsewhere, for he had work to do here. Very soon he had excused himself, attempting to locate possible threats and opportunities as his eyes scanned the room. He knew that at some point he would have to secure the chance to have a one-on-one conversation with one of the brand's designers, not because Sehun was a fan, but because according to the information Sehun had received from Senior Management in Hell, this quirky, eccentric designer was a monster who knew a lot of things about a lot of people, without the exception of the formidable Campbell family.

As more guests processioned into the venue, Danielle paid little attention to them, but there just had to be this one guest who could not escape Danielle's notice. "What's he doing here?" She uttered under her breath, not particularly pleased to see him make his way over to her. She was even less amused when she saw that he was arm in arm with a girl who looked more than happy and proud to be by his side.

"Ah, what a coincidence," he piped up, wearing that irritating hybrid of a smile and a smirk on his handsome face. He looked gorgeous, as always, which was even more infuriating. "Doctor Creighton! How nice it is to see you here."

_Oh, so it's_ Doctor Creighton _now_ , Danielle thought to herself, refraining from pursing her lips in distaste. " _Baekhyun_!” she replied emphatically, plastering a smile across her face. “It’s been a while! So great to see you again. I didn’t expect to run into you here.”

As she spoke, she could already predict his response. She was sure he would be all like, ‘I’m Byun Baekhyun. Why wouldn’t I get invited?’ and then flash her that cocky grin that did certain things to her. But this time she would be surprised.

“Me neither! I only decided to come because my girlfriend Yunhee got tickets for both of us,” he replied jovially, glancing at the girl on his arm. She smiled condescendingly at Danielle and stood even closer to Baekhyun as if defending her territory. She was unfortunately too used to having to do this, aware that Baekhyun had plenty of other women in his life, some of them meant little to him, others — like Danielle — meant a lot, enough to make this  _girlfriend_  of his feel threatened. And given the female competition she already had to deal with at the office that she and Baekhyun worked at, she felt the need to make it obvious that he belonged to her and only her.

“Baekhyunee originally wasn’t at all interested in attending,” Yunhee revealed haughtily. “But I convinced him to join me. He spoils me all the time and I know he’d do anything for me. I’m so lucky to have him.”

“How sweet,” Danielle lied, forcing herself to continue to smile even when she wanted to roll her eyes. “The show is starting soon,” she added hastily, and would rather end this conversation as soon as possible. “Let’s chat later.”

“Sure,” Baekhyun replied gladly. “The after party is gonna—”

“Ahem,” Yunhee cut in and cleared her throat somewhat dramatically. “Probably not. We have plans after the show.”

“No problem,” Danielle said quickly, managing to not display her disgust, only relieved that she could disengage herself. “See you around, then.”

* * *

The show was enjoyable, but carrying a baby was a tiring job, let alone a baby that grew several times as fast as any ordinary mother could expect — all Katie wanted to do was go home and sleep, and could not have agreed more promptly when Junmyeon offered to take her home first.

“Text me when you get home, alright?” Danielle said to Katie. She then stayed for the after party and for hours, Baekhyun and Yunhee were nowhere to be seen, which was a relief. However, this relief was short-lived as it was toppled by an impending danger.

Sehun emerged from the corridor that led to the bathrooms, and although he was in a rush to make his way through the crowds over to where Danielle was, he still managed to move so gracefully and swiftly.

“What’s wrong?” She asked, face full of concern as he looked so alarmed.

“I was in the bathroom just now. Turns out one of the models is a siren,” he explained worriedly.

She shuddered in revulsion. Although sirens often deceived their preys by taking on human forms and appearing as their victims’ loved ones, a mirror would reflect their true form which was far from human. It was hideous, hairless, haggard, and they were quite possibly the ugliest creatures to ever exist.

“Did you…” she gulped. “Kill it?”

“Not me,” he shook his head. “Hunters. Campbells. They were engaged in combat with the siren; I fled in fright because I needed to let them think I was human.”

The disgust and apprehension on her face vanished, and there was only abhorrence and rage. Her glare was spiteful and menacing, but it did not deter him — he needed to grab her arm in order to stop her from marching to the bathroom.

“Let me go,” she hissed, gritting her teeth. “How many are there? I can handle them.” She believed that if she could fight in a corset and a hoop skirt like back in the days, she could also do this in a wired bra and a short dress. But she only considered her hatred and anger toward hunters, especially Campbell hunters, and had little thought for the danger in fighting them.

His grip on her loosened, but he still blocked her way. “No. It’s not safe for you to be in the vicinity anymore. What if they have their vampire tracker device with them? What if they’re armed with vervain? You need to go home. Stay near Katie so you’re off their radar,” he insisted, furtively leading her to a quieter corner and inadvertently backing her into it.

She knew he had a point, and at the mention of vervain she had faltered. She did not need to go through that near-death experience once again. “And what about you?” She asked quietly, looking him in the eye. It felt strange, this staggering resentment in her chest mixing with this calming, soothing warmth that came with his concern for her safety.

“I have protocol to follow. Don’t worry about me. You have to leave. Now,” he instructed sternly, walking her to the exit. "Let's get you a taxi."

"That...won't be necessary," a smooth voice declared, and Danielle gasped.

"Baek?" She blinked, baffled. "I thought you left early with Yu—”

"Well, I've come back," he announced, smooth as silk, charming and mysterious. "I heard about the sirens. And I've got a car. Let's go."

All this time, Sehun had kept an arm around Danielle, more of a protective move than a possessive gesture. He did not make it his business to create a dossier about Baekhyun and was unsure if  _he_  could trust this quirky monster with someone as important as Danielle. But it was imperative for her to get out of here. Slightly reluctantly, he let go of her and nodded curtly at Baekhyun, before once more blending right into the blissfully oblivious guests of the after party.

* * *

Seated in Baekhyun's car once again on the way home, Danielle nibbled on her lip nervously. She was escorted to safety, but Sehun, a rookie demon, was on his own.

"I hope he's going to be fine," she uttered, shifting in her seat.

"Of course he is. He may be a fresh demon graduate, but he's not weak," Baekhyun replied laxly. "He's not to be underestimated. Some of the demon trainees in his year and even some of his seniors got expelled, but  _he_  managed to graduate and secure a position as an agent in the Ministry of Defense. That's really saying something."

"So he's impressed even you, huh?" Danielle looked amused. "I never knew he was that accomplished. It feels more like he's always seemed a bit...uncertain about himself."

Baekhyun shrugged. "I thought you would've known. If I were that gifted, I'd have shown off about it."

Danielle snorted. "Well, he's remained humble, unlike someone."

Baekhyun just beamed. "It's all part of my charm. You wouldn't have liked me so much if I weren't playful and cocky."

"I would have liked you  _more_  if you had been honest with me and told me that you were seeing someone," said Danielle in disapproval.

"Okay. Next time I will," Baekhyun said casually, grinning guiltlessly too. "And you'll tell me too if you're seeing someone, won't you?"

"I'm not seeing Sehun," Danielle stated flatly.

"I didn't say it was him," Baekhyun chuckled. “Or anyone in particular.”

"We're just friends," Danielle insisted, quickly realizing that she was falling into another one of Baekhyun's traps. "I'm grateful to him for saving my life, and I care about him."

"You  _worry_  about him," Baekhyun corrected. "You never worry about anyone except for your family."

"And  _you_ never worry about anyone except for yourself."

"I'm already a lot less selfish than I was 100 years ago," he replied, but paused as he decided against bringing up what  _really_  happened that many years ago. "Yunhee wasn’t well so I took her home, and then I came back to the party for you."

"No, you came back for the free booze."

"Yeah, that too," he admitted.

"And left your girlfriend at home, for free booze. You must love her so much," she said sardonically. "I absolutely adore her too. Catch us on spa dates and girls' night out next week."

"Come on now, Danielle, you know I —”

"No, it's Doctor Creighton," she scowled and shook her head.

He laughed. "Look, I'm sorry Yunhee was a tad bit bitchy just now. She's defensive and it may or may not be because she caught me kissing an intern at the office that one time...oh wait, that was Naeun. I think she's a friend of Katie’s."

"Ugh," she scoffed. "Oh my gosh, Baekhyun, you're such a hoe."

“Yes, yes. Love you too,” he grinned. “Here we are. Don’t worry too much, aight? Especially since I won’t be around to sing you to sleep.”

She sighed but smiled. “Thanks for the ride, Baek. Goodnight.”

* * *

Much of the following day was spent with Katie, looking after her and preparing for the baby to be welcomed into the world. That involved buying baby clothes and building a crib and all that kind of stuff. Junmyeon also came over, but not bearing good news.

Setting her phone down on the table, Danielle sighed. “I've spent all day trying to call Sehun but I just can't reach him. I need to know that he’s at least safe. I know he's competent but it's no picnic dealing with Campbell hunters, not to mention I have no idea how many of them he had to deal with, on his own. How can I  _not_  be worried about him?”

“No, your safety should always come first,” Katie whined. “If he said he’ll take care of it, then he’ll take care of it.”

“He handled last night’s operation just fine,” Junmyeon reassured, although what he had to say next did not sound reassuring at all. “In fact, our team is doing so well that Senior Management has decided to move on to the next phase sooner than expected. Just this morning, Sehun and a squadron of other agents of his ranking got deployed to Jeju to continue plucking Campbell hunters, since we've pretty much collected all the ones in Seoul. Hell has received intel that the Campbell clan has been building vast training premises/grounds in Jeju for young hunters, so we've got more work to do there. It's gonna be pretty intense. Good training for the Junior Agents.”

Danielle was taken aback, needing a moment to process this. “So...he's gone now? Just like that? Without saying goodbye?”

Junmyeon shrugged. “Senior Management doesn't take into account our attachments to whoever comes into our lives, no matter how important we find them to be.” Under the table, he placed his hand atop Katie’s. He was going to be here with her for as long as he could, even though a voice at the back of his head reminded him of the harsh reality that this could get him in trouble with Senior Management.

“Well...when will he return from this deployment?” Danielle asked, suddenly missing Sehun a lot.

“We’re not sure if they'll even be coming back to Seoul. They might be obligated to return to Hell right away. It all depends on what plans Senior Management has for us,” Junmyeon revealed. “I can keep you posted if you want, though.”

Danielle nodded glumly. “Yes, please.”

For the rest of the day, though, she remained distrait, thinking that she might never again get to see Sehun, the rookie demon who saved her life, the attractive agent who got her to hold back from killing a Campbell, the stoic man who thought of her safety before doing his job...she could certainly do without this dreariness and gloom that came with his absence.


	8. The Vampire's Loss

"Is Junmyeon gonna come over today?" Danielle asked Katie as they had breakfast. "I thought he was gonna stay the night, actually."

"No...he couldn't. And I don't think he's ever coming back," Katie revealed wearily.

"What? What do you mean?" Danielle frowned in confusion and disappointment, setting her utensils down on the plate. "He can't just leave you all by yourself like that." First it was Sehun going away and nobody knew when he was coming back, if ever. Now, it was Junmyeon. What was it with all these demons leaving randomly and not returning? It might not even be their fault, but that did not make it any less frustrating.

"He wouldn't, if he could help it. But he had to go back to Hell. He told me that Senior Management found out about his relationship with me and that we have a baby on the way. They're not happy about it, and now, they want to have a chat with him about this situation that they did not warrant. And by a 'chat', he knows they mean an interrogation," Katie explained, gulping in discomfort.

"Then...after this nice and lovely chat, he's going to come back to you, isn't he?" Danielle questioned.

"He said he would, but...only if he actually could. You remember my friend Naeun? Her boyfriend Yixing may be a human now, but he used to be a demon trainee. He failed his mission and got kicked out of Hell, and he went through an interrogation as well. Anyway, the thing is...you don't go into an interrogation with Senior Management and then walk out the same as you were before. And that's assuming you survive it," Katie shuddered. "So, about Junmyeon. Hell wants him back and he's been trying to delay it, even getting some of his juniors to substitute him on the missions that were meant for him, just so he could spend more time with me. But we're just delaying the inevitable and if he doesn't go back, then they're gonna send someone to collect him, and that's not going to be pretty either."

Danielle sighed. "That's messed up. But what if you go into labor? And he's not gonna be able to be there for you? That worries me, because we can't predict when —”

She got interrupted when both of them heard a pop, as if someone had just cracked their knuckles, but then — water began to gush out from between Katie's legs. There was no pain, not yet, but there was a flood. Startled, both of them screamed.

* * *

Although they could not predict when a demon-human hybrid baby was going to be due, nor did they know what it was going to look like, it was absolutely not an option to allow a human obstetrician or human nurses who were unbeknownst to the supernatural to oversee the childbirth process. And so, as early as having discovered Katie's pregnancy, Danielle had discussed this with Kyungsoo and they had figured out a way for her to safely and speedily sneak Katie into a delivery ward. From then on it would be up to the two vampire doctors to deliver the half-demon, half-human baby. It was safer to keep it this way, just the two of them and Katie in the room, and they did not have the slightest intention of allowing anybody else in. Still,  _somebody_  had managed to find a way in, and it should  _not_ have been a surprise at all considering that it was none other than the monster Baekhyun.

"Baek!" Both vampires shouted in frustration at the same time, Danielle clearly sounding more exasperated than Kyungsoo, while Katie merely whimpered, needing to preserve energy for all the pushing and yelling later on.

“What are you doing here?” Kyungsoo enquired.

“Trying to save a life,” Baekhyun announced urgently. “The Cambion must not be born.”

“...what?” Katie asked halfheartedly, flinching in pain. “You're joking, right? You've got to be kidding me. I can't just... _not_  give birth. It's happening already. Ow!” She hissed as another contraction hit her.

“Baekhyun, get out. No one here has the time to play your games,” Danielle demanded sternly, pointing at the door and then walking past Baekhyun to fetch the equipment she needed. That gave him the opportunity to stop her by grabbing her arm, not forcefully but enough to make a point.

“I’m serious,” Baekhyun insisted, even though he was hardly ever serious.

“So am I,” Danielle reiterated, glaring at the monster and not understanding what he was here for.

“I’ve made a discovery,” Baekhyun revealed. “You’re not gonna like this, but I’ve learned that every human woman who has ever birthed a Cambion has died as a result of the childbirth. Even those who delivered by C-section, they perish right after.”

The room fell silent, and even Katie, amidst her pain, made no sound. Turning to face Katie directly, Baekhyun continued. “They all died and it’s not because of complications in the childbirth process itself, but because when the Cambion baby grows, it sucks the life out of the mother, which is why it grows so abnormally fast. During gestation, you don’t feel it destroying you, but it actually is slowly killing you. In fact, I should say that it’s the fetus that keeps the bearer alive, but once it can live independently from its mother...she’s going to perish. There has been no exception, throughout the hundreds and thousands of years that humans and demons have existed for. There is no reason to believe that you’re going to be spared. As for why I haven’t informed any of you of this sooner, it’s because I’ve only found out about it just now. The existence of each Cambion is recorded by Hell and by monsters, but it’s always classified intel. I’ve had to pull a few strings and trade a few secrets of my own to obtain that information. I’m just here to relay this message to you all.”

After another moment of silence, Danielle shivered and asked, “then, what is it that you expect us to do with this information?” She was not sure how to feel about it. Was it fear that came first? Or sadness? Or anger? Disappointment, perhaps? Helplessness, even, that came with resignation, but also a foolish sense of hope. This miscellany of emotions was hitting her like a whirlwind and she did not know how to deal with it. The baby was about to pop out of Katie any moment which meant, according to Baekhyun’s news, that Katie’s death was imminent. It was not something that anybody in the room had the power to hold off — how was Danielle supposed to process that as well?

“So...you’re saying, I’m going to die as soon as I give birth?” Katie inquired through labored breath. “And there’s no way I could possibly survive this? Because I’m virtually already dead if not for the baby keeping me alive?”

“Of course there’s a way around this,” Danielle huffed. “Gosh, it’s so simple. How could I not have thought of it?” Decisively, she bit down onto her wrist, letting her fangs tear her own skin open. Cambions had been known to cause the deaths of their human mothers, but if Katie could become a vampire before giving birth, like what happened to Danielle all these years ago, then Katie could not be killed by her own baby.

Katie caught on immediately. “I...I’m not sure I want to do this. I don’t...I don’t want to be a vampire,” she sighed. “In all honesty, I would rather die a human death than be immortal.”

“Baby, what are you saying?” Devastation was written all over Danielle’s face. This was the only solution she could come up with, but Katie was not accepting it. “Why? Why wouldn’t you want to live?”

“I do want to live, but...not forever. I can’t do this; it’s just eternal suffering, watching everybody around me grow old and it’ll keep reminding me that I’ll never experience that ever again, then they die and their kids die and their grandkids die...and I’ll still be here, I’ll still be moving from one town to another every decade to avoid suspicion, never daring to let my guard down because of hunters, one relationship after another but it’ll never last…” she shook her head. “It’s exhausting. And I’ll be miserable. I can’t live like that. I won’t be happy that way. It’s just...pointless.”

The rivulets of blood that flowed from Danielle’s wrist to her fingers were beginning to dry, but now tears were springing to her eyes. How she wished she could take Katie’s place and be the one to pay the price of birthing a Cambion in her stead. She had lived for more than four centuries already, but Katie was only twenty...still too young, and this was not how her life was supposed to just end.

“I know what you’re thinking,” Katie continued solemnly. “You’d be willing to die for me, so why wouldn’t I do the same for my own child?”

“I can’t just let you die!” Danielle exclaimed, tears streaming down her face. “I can’t, I can’t do that...no, I just can’t. You can’t ask that of me.”

Katie could not respond, only crying out in pain once more as another contraction hit her. She writhed and turned in the bed, wishing to end the pain. Her eyes found Kyungsoo, who was at the other side of the bed, scissors and towels at the ready. Unlike Baekhyun who stood by the door and observed everything impassively, Kyungsoo felt really bad for both Katie and Danielle, but the baby was coming and it was not in his power to stop the birth of a creature who could be way more powerful than everybody in the room combined, not to mention that Katie was looking up at him pleadingly. Her eyes said everything: all she wanted was for her baby — Junmyeon’s baby — to be safely delivered. She valued the baby’s life above her own, and picked death over immortality. She had made her choice with no regrets and now Kyungsoo felt even more obligated to honor what was going to be her last wish.

“It’s happening,” Kyungsoo spoke to Danielle softly, but with determination. “We have to let it.”

* * *

It was some hours later that a baby’s cries were heard. The baby looked no different than an ordinary human baby, and if they had not known better they really would have been convinced that no part of it came from a demon.

“You did it!” Kyungsoo announced, in awe of the new life but also getting more and more anxious that Katie was going to flatline very soon. “It’s a boy!” He added shakily, trying to sound remotely happy even though these few moments could already be Katie’s last.

“A boy…” Katie breathed weakly, but the smile on her face came on effortlessly. “His name…” she went on, recalling what she and Junmyeon had discussed about baby names the other day. “ _Dooyoung_.”

“Dooyoung…” Kyungsoo repeated, whereas Danielle could not find the words to say. She could not even spare a glance at baby Dooyoung, only keeping her eyes on Katie and grasping her hand so tight that it might be painful for Katie but given what she had just gone through, she would not feel a single thing.

“I did it…” Katie whispered, and her eyes fluttered shut for a moment out of tiredness, which almost gave Danielle a heart attack. “Junmyeon...wish he could meet...our son,” she continued, her voice already hoarse from hours and hours of screaming.

“You’ve got to stay alive, okay?” Danielle begged as she cried, sniffling. “So that you can be here when Junmyeon comes back,” she declared fiercely, as if giving Katie a reason to live would be enough to keep her away from the brink of death. She did not care for drying her eyes, only bringing her wrist to her fangs again and biting hard on it. “Here,” she offered, practically shoving it into Katie’s mouth anyway. “You don’t have to die, or turn into a vamp. It’ll just help you recover from the damage,” she said in reassurance, although it was more like she needed that reassurance more than Katie did.

Perfunctorily, Katie licked up a few drops and then spoke, evidently growing weaker and weaker as her voice was barely audible now. “Want to see...baby…” she requested.

Kyungsoo had had the baby cleaned up and promptly approached Katie as he and Danielle helped her sit up. Katie wanted to hold her baby, but she could not even move her arms. She was too weak. Danielle, on the other hand, could not bear to look at the baby even though he was her descendant too. Instead, she inspected Katie’s body and frowned. “Why...why aren’t the rips and tears healing?” She asked aloud, looking up at Kyungsoo in worry. “I fed her my blood. I’ve administered my blood to hundreds of patients before, and they heal, quickly. But it’s not working this time…is it not enough? What should I do?” Chills ran down her spine even though she was sweating. “Soo...I’m scared…”

Kyungsoo swallowed in dismay. “Our blood...it’s not potent enough. The Cambion has drained more than we can compensate for. I’m truly sorry.”

Katie let out a noise, her lips quivering. She was trying to say something, but was too weak to, even though she was desperate to be heard. Hurriedly, Danielle leaned in really close, so close that the residual blood remaining on Katie’s lips could be smeared onto Danielle’s earlobe. Danielle squeezed Katie’s hand again, both their palms sweaty. She urged the dying girl to hold on, hold on no matter what. She could feel just how cold Katie’s hand was as it trembled, and this was not something that an extra blanket could remedy. There was no denying how pale and lifeless she was now. How ironic it was that Danielle was the vampire; she was the one who was supposed to be cold and pale and technically not even alive, but no, that was all Katie.

Eventually it was with much effort that Danielle finally made out the words that Katie was struggling to get out. She even had to hold her breath for fear that she might break into sobs and interrupt Katie’s already broken sentences: ‘I leave Dooyoung to you. I love you. Sorry.’

_Yes, of course I’ll raise Dooyoung for you and Junmyeon. It’s not your fault that you have to give up your life for your baby. I love you too._  Danielle wanted to say all these things to Katie, but there was a huge lump in her throat and her heart hurt and she could barely breathe. But even if she could say the words, Katie was not there to hear it anymore. Her arm went limp and her hand threatened to slip out of Danielle’s, and she was no longer drawing labored breaths. There she lied, unresponsive and cold and pale. Fresh, warm tears continued to pour out from Danielle’s eyes, falling quietly, and the only sound that filled the room was the cries of baby Dooyoung cradled in Kyungsoo’s arms.


	9. The Vampire's Cambion

Knowing Danielle’s conflicted feelings, Kyungsoo held back from asking her if she wanted to hold Dooyoung, and just quietly took the baby to another chamber. He supposed even Cambion babies needed proper postnatal care.

Danielle, on the other hand, just sat motionlessly on the floor next to Katie’s bed. What was she going to do now, other than cry?

The door creaked open once more but this time it was not Kyungsoo who entered. It was Baekhyun who walked back in, and Danielle did not care to ask where he had gone after she and Kyungsoo had kicked him out of the room when Katie had to give birth.

“So, is it a boy or a girl?” Baekhyun asked, sitting down next to Danielle and not minding the coldness of the floor.

Danielle rested her forehead on her palm, not wanting to look at Baekhyun. “How can you just waltz back in and ask me that, as if the gender of the baby is more important than what Katie had to go through?”

Baekhyun shrugged, barely trying to appear apologetic. It was much easier to be flippant. “I didn’t really know what to say.” His kind was not sensitive to loss, or grief, and no one could ever be sure if that was a blessing or a curse.

Danielle stifled a sigh. She should have known that Baekhyun was not someone she could run to when she needed comfort. “So you just decide to crash the delivery ward with the worst news in the world, and no solution to the problem, eh?”

Baekhyun was the one who sighed loudly. “I had a solution. I just didn’t know how to execute it. I wish I could have found a surefire way to kill a Cambion, but no Cambion has ever been killed — heck, I don’t even know if they  _can_  be killed. But I know that it should’ve been aborted. It doesn’t deserve to be born. It only saved its mother’s life just so it could live,” he said dispassionately.

“You want to — Baekhyun, what the fuck? That would  _not_  have saved Katie’s life. She didn’t want to abort the baby; she wanted to  _live_  in addition to giving birth but because she can only choose one, as you had so kindly informed us, she chose her baby’s life and gave up her own. Do you not understand this?” Danielle huffed in exasperation, rubbing her temples more persistently. “But I should’ve known. I should’ve known it’d cross your mind. ‘Let them die.’ That’s always been your mentality. Letting other people, creatures, die for you, just so you can keep living. That's gonna fix everything and you can carry on comfortably and be sipping champagne at the end of the day.”

“Hey,” Baekhyun shot back and he was not kidding. “What do you mean?” He questioned and not at all innocently.

“You  _know_  what I mean. You know it  _better_  than I do. You're so accustomed to having others die for you that you can only think of imposing the same strategy on Katie. You ever think that she's not a monster like you? That she actually is capable of putting other people before herself? Unlike you? No, of course not. You only ever think about yourself. Sacrificing others, it's allowed you to live till now, so as long as you get to stay alive, why not?” Danielle spat hostilely, her tone accusatory. “It was more than a hundred years ago; you probably don’t even remember them.”

Baekhyun scowled defiantly. “Don't talk about it like you know exactly what the situation was like. You weren't there yourself; you only know a small fragment of the whole story. They died voluntarily for me,” he claimed defensively. “Probably knowing that they would not get to live long even if they chose their own lives over mine. I gave meaning to their deaths. I made sure their families were looked after. I took care of things like I said I would. I didn't fail them.”

“But you're failing me  _now_ , aren't you?” Danielle bellowed, scrambling to her feet.

“How could you say that?!” Baekhyun argued hotly as he stood up too. “Why should it be  _my_  obligation to solve your problems? Why should  _I_  take the blame for your inability to protect the ones who matter the most to you? I don’t owe you anything but you act like I do.”

Danielle thought she was going to lose her mind, tugging on her hair desperately and not caring about the blood stains on her gloves. “So what do you want me to do?” She choked out the words in an almost pleading manner. “What is there  _left_  for me to do?”

“There’s nothing you can do!” Baekhyun asserted firmly, his statement sending chills down Danielle’s spine and hit her like a slap across the face as the helplessness really sank in. “Just because you cheated death doesn’t mean your loved ones can too! Whenever you try your hardest but still don’t get the outcome that you want, you lash out at someone who isn’t responsible. Bet that was what happened with the demon boy who saved your ass too, huh? Well, go on then. Scream at him. Scream at me. Scream at Kyungsoo, scream at the baby, scream at every scapegoat you can find until you realize that none of that is going to bring back the dead, none of us could’ve done more to change things or prevent this tragedy. There’s only so much you can do and it isn’t anybody’s  _fault_  that this is the way things are.”

“Wow…” Danielle nodded numbly, opening and closing her mouth a couple of times but not quite able to find the words to say. “Wow. That really helped. Thanks. I feel  _so_ much better now,” she said sardonically, roughly removing her gloves and catching her tears. “I don’t even know what to say to you anymore. Get out,” she demanded. “Get out and don’t ever come back again.”

Remaining stoic, Baekhyun cast a final impassive glance at Katie’s lifeless body and then strode out of the ward. There were no more words to be said.

* * *

It was when no more tears could pour out of Danielle’s eyes that she finally found the strength to exit the ward, in search of Kyungsoo.

“Give me the child,” she said softly. She was determined to raise baby Dooyoung like she did with Katie. As far as she knew, she was his only living relative, and he was the only family she had left.

“You should come and see this,” said Kyungsoo gingerly as he handed Dooyoung to her. When Dooyoung opened his mouth, it was clear to the two doctors. Danielle was astounded to find that Dooyoung’s first tooth was poking through.

“How is that possible?!” She gasped.

“It’s not. He’s only a few hours old. Shouldn’t it at least take 3 months?” Kyungsoo frowned uneasily.

“What the...it was already insane enough that Katie was only pregnant for a couple of months. This baby’s growth rate is unpredictable and I’m worried, to say the least. What if he turns into a teenager tomorrow? He’s gonna be an elderly before the end of this week...and then does he die? He doesn’t, right? Cambions don’t die, I suppose? Gosh, I don’t know,” she rambled, massaging her temples but it did not alleviate her troubles.

“I don’t think we are properly equipped to take care of such an unusual baby,” Kyungsoo pointed out. “We may be medically trained and we may be immortal, but it’s only been several hours and we’re already thoroughly befuddled. How are we going to cope?”

Danielle shook her head, refusing to just throw her hands up in the air and give up. “I have no clue,” she admitted. “But we’ll find a way. I know we will. We have to. Because this time I'm not failing Katie again.”

* * *

Life had become one big paradox for Danielle, considering she had been undead for four centuries but was kind of dead inside ever since she lost Katie. For the most part, she had been keeping herself busy with Dooyoung, and much to her relief, his precocious growth had not brought upon the apocalypse. His second tooth was beginning to come through, and even though he was just a few days old he was already steadily walking from one end of the crib to the other, giggling as he did so.

After feeding Dooyoung, it was her turn to eat. She grabbed a blood bag and was about to refill the almost empty water boiler to make tea, but was interrupted by a phone call from Naeun to talk about Katie’s funeral arrangements. Afterward when she returned to the kitchen, she was both amazed and alarmed to find that the boiler had been filled up.

She gulped and cautiously turned to look at Dooyoung who was looking right back at her, innocently sucking his thumb. “Did you do that?” She asked under her breath, although she did not believe that he could understand her yet. “It was you, wasn’t it?”

She could come up with no other explanation for this. Just yesterday when she accidentally knocked over a glass of water and had to rush to the kitchen to grab a cloth to wipe the table, she came back to find the puddle gone. It was freaking her out a little bit; water was not supposed to just appear and disappear. She knew about Junmyeon’s affinity for water, or his superpower, or his special skills, or whatever it was called. His son must have inherited it. But even demons needed to spend months, even years, in Hell, to be trained to control their powers, and she did not know how to train baby Dooyoung. What if it got out of control? What if he got upset one day and caused a flood? What if he did the  _opposite_  of one of the ten biblical plagues of Egypt and turned blood into water instead? That was her food supply...she shuddered, both worried and bewildered. Dooyoung actually  _knew_  when water was needed and when it was not. Babies were NOT supposed to know this.

Kyungsoo’s words rang in Danielle’s head. He was right to say that they did not have what it took to look after an unimaginably powerful baby. But what alternative did she have? If she could not be the one to raise him, who else was around to do that?

It seemed they only had each other, no matter how chaotic it got. It was the same cycle for Danielle. It was like that for her 400 years ago in France, only her and her own child. It was like that 20 years ago, when she grabbed baby Katie and fled from the Campbells. And now here she was again, in a house that no longer felt like a home, trying to figure out how to handle Dooyoung.

Perhaps it was time to enlist the help of a demon.

* * *

Having completed his missions in Jeju, Sehun packed his belongings and checked his schedule. Senior Management had already assigned new missions to him and he was expected to head back to Seoul to get the job done. He was eager to go back but not so much for work purposes. He felt bad about not getting to say goodbye to Danielle before he had left for Jeju. It was impolite to say the least, but Senior Management had cut off all Junior Agents’ communications with outsiders. He had been living under a rock and had no clue that so much had happened over the past few days. He was therefore in for a huge shock when he was suddenly visited by his Yifan-hyung, sent here to fill him in on all that he had missed.

“You’re in a bit of trouble,” Yifan revealed solemnly. “Senior Management knows about your dalliance with the vampire.”

Sehun snorted. “‘Dalliance’? It’s not like that between me and Danielle.”

“It doesn’t matter what the nature of your relationship with her is. Senior Management disapproves of it; that’s why they’ve been imposing stricter limitations on who Junior Agents get to communicate with, especially when on a mission. Their regulations on Senior Agents used to be loose, like with Junmyeon, and now he’s in big trouble, so now Senior Management is not about to let Junior Agents populate the world with hybrids,” Yifan explained grimly. “But the thing is, Senior Management wants to take control of the hybrid. They know you’re close with the hybrid’s caregiver, so your job is to persuade her to hand the hybrid over to you, and then bring him back to Hell.”

Sehun shifted in his seat and bit his lip. He did not at all appreciate that his, uh, friendship with Danielle had become something for Senior Management to take advantage of. He reckoned it unlikely that she would oblige and comply, and if she were unwilling then he would have to pressure her into it because it was what his mission required of him. That prospect had made him deeply uncomfortable and he did not know what to say to his hyung. It was not like he could turn down a mission.

“Look, you won’t be coercing her into it; you’d just be convincing her to do the right thing, alright? To do what’s best for all of us, for the hybrid, and for herself,” Yifan added, hoping it would make things a little easier for Sehun.

“That’s what Senior Management wants us to think,” Sehun uttered, disgruntled.

“You don’t have to agree with Senior Management. You just have to execute,” Yifan stated flatly. “I’m only here to deliver their message to you. My work here is done. I’m going to go.”

“Hyung, why do you keep letting Senior Management treat you like a messenger boy? You’re a Senior Agent, just like Junmyeon-hyung is, and I don’t see Senior Management walking all over him like they’re doing to you,” Sehun protested, folding his arms across his chest.

Yifan was silent for a moment. “You know why,” he said gravely, reluctantly.

Sehun sat up properly. “I’ve heard rumors. Said it’s because you still carry so many memories of your human life with you and brainwashing doesn’t work on you. Is that true? You weren’t able to break that bond like the rest of us did?”

“Something like that,” Yifan replied vaguely, momentarily averting his gaze in shame and pain. “Just...don’t let what’s left of your humanity get the better of you. Or you’ll end up like me and that’s not what you want.”

“But hyung —”

“I gotta go,” he said monotonously. “Good luck with your mission.”


	10. The Vampire’s Grief

When Sehun laid eyes on Danielle again, the first thing he noticed was that she had lost a lot of weight. Recent events had really taken their toll on her, and if having the baby around had brought any kind of comfort to her, it was now gone too, because Dooyoung was gone.

“He's gone? What do you mean?” Sehun questioned, bluntly and in disbelief. Danielle had invited him into the house but he could barely move a muscle, let alone take a seat.

“They took him away,” Danielle continued wearily, absentmindedly grabbing two cups. “And now, I have to boil my own water to make tea,” she mumbled humorlessly.

“Who though? My associates? Senior Management?” Sehun pressed on, furrowing his eyebrows in worry and in confusion. His heart skipped a beat too. How was he supposed to conduct his mission now?

“Quite the contrary. They did boast that they didn't belong under Senior Management’s chain of command. They called themselves ‘Special Forces’. Does that ring a bell?”

Relief washed over Sehun once he realized he would be spared from the repercussions of not having completed this mission because Senior Management could not blame Special Forces’ intervention on him. But even more striking was a sense of worry that flooded him. Even the name of Special Forces could invoke fear in most demons. They were Special in unspeakable ways, and really put the ‘force’ in Forces.

“Did they hurt you?” He blurted, stepping closer to Danielle as if he felt a need to inspect her to check that she was unharmed. He knew they would not hesitate to harm her if she got in the way.

She shook her head blankly. How ironic it was that  _her_  emotional capacity was suffering a collapse ever since Katie died and Dooyoung was gone, whereas Sehun experienced a wider range of emotions — and his emotions were usually tied to Danielle.

“I didn't put up a fight,” she shrugged and explained. “I haven't got much fight left in me. They came in, gave me a speech about the many reasons why I should let Dooyoung be raised in Hell among his own demon kind, and  _then_  threatened to use violence if I didn't agree to it. But I complied. I mean, it's not the first time I’ve had the thought of handing him over to someone who'd be more capable of raising him, mentoring him even. So I let him go. And he just...went with them. He didn't cry or kick or anything. It was almost like he knew where he belonged or something. I don't know. I'm a mess. I still have so many doubts. Like, what if I miss him? Will I ever get to see him? Do I have child visitation rights? I mean, he's not MY baby, but he's... _my_   _baby_ ; he's— ugh.”

The moment he welcomed her into his embrace, she shut her eyes and leaned forward into him as if their minds and bodies were in sync. Instantly she found comfort and security in his arms, but she also felt like she wanted to cry, really break down and cry. Consolation was the last thing she would expect a demon to provide, but she got it with Sehun and that was what mattered. Sehun was all that mattered. And so she sank deeper into him, wrapping her arms around him tightly like a child clinging to a blanket, keeping close to a source of solace and away from abandonment, isolation, and the debilitating dread that never seemed to end. All that was left of her humanity had died along with Katie. This emptiness was frankly scary.

“You did the right thing,” he said softly in reassurance, thumbing the ends of her hair to soothe her. “I understand he may be the last of your family, but he could also be an uncontrollable creature and an immense burden. I don't want you to be burdened.”

“I haven't got any burdens,” she croaked wryly as if she was taunting herself, shaking her head and nuzzling into his neck. “I haven't got anything. Haven't got anybody.”

“You have me,” he replied without missing a beat. A fuzzy sensation jolted through his veins when she grazed her nose against the curve of his neck. Taking a relaxed breath, he continued. “I don't know if you and Dooyoung will ever meet again. But I'm confident that he is in good hands and he’ll be raised by Junmyeon-hyung and the other demons. They'll teach him how to control and hone his powers. He'll be fine. You'll be fine.”

She breathed in and breathed out tiredly, as if she hardly wanted to breathe anymore. “I want to be fine. But right now I really don’t feel fine. Everything feels wrong. This house...is so empty, and I'm just...all by myself. I miss my family. I miss having one.”

Suddenly, Sehun felt like an arrow had hit him square in the chest, but instead of clutching his chest, he simply held Danielle closer to him as his eyes widened in shock. Her words had strung a chord in his heart and he even gasped ever so slightly as a thought ran through his mind. A chilling thought that he was supposed to have left behind in his human life. A haunting thought that should have been wiped by the brainwashing program that he went through when he became a demon. The thought of his own family. He was not supposed to have any memories of his human life but her grief was so infectious that it affected him. His emotions were so dysfunctional, except when he was with her. In her presence, under her influence, he was so  _human_.

“I…I know what it's like to lose a family member,” he let out slowly, still processing the surge of emotions. He was flummoxed; this was so unexpected, but it was all coming back to him now.

Both mystified and surprised, she looked up at him. “You do?” She wanted to be understood, so that at least that would lend some sense of normalcy to this fucked up mess that was the residual pieces of her life now, but at the same time it bore an awful implication that whoever could empathize with her must have suffered a lot as well, and she would not wish that on him.

He nodded slowly, his eyebrows knitting together in sorrow. “Before I became...who I am now, a demon, I lost my entire family. Twice over, actually. My biological family, and then years later my adoptive family.”

Pain strained her voice. “H-how did you cope with such an enormous loss?”

“I didn't,” he replied ruefully. “I was recruited right after. Once I became a demon, I had no more humanity and therefore experienced no more grief. But even in that short, agonizing period that contained my last fleeting moments as a human, I remember what it was like to not have anyone around to keep me sane. And that’s why when demons offered me company I accepted it and I was willing to go anywhere with them. Anything was better than being smothered by that loneliness, that awful emptiness. I can imagine — no, I  _know_  how tough it is for you. Nothing ever fills the vacancy or makes up for it. A piece of you dies with them; it’s lost forever. And then what's left of you will always be incomplete. Eventually you get accustomed to it and you carry on with your immortal life because you've got no other choice. But until that happens, it's gonna hurt, and I won't just stand by and let you go through this alone. Let me stay with you. At least for tonight.”

She could not have been quicker to take him up on his offer. She knew she needed him. Perhaps she just needed anyone, but she  _wanted_  it to be him. “It's just...I haven't cleared out Katie’s room yet.”

“I'm fine with sleeping on the couch or even on the floor.”

“No.” Her voice quivered. “I need you much closer to me than that. And I need you to never let me go. I'm crumbling inside. Please.”

A voice at the back of his mind piped up, snarling at him.  _‘You're a demon. You don't know how to ‘be there’ for someone nor is it your business to.’_  But he bit his lip and trampled on that voice, stomping on it till it was mute and overthrown. He just knew that he wanted to be whatever she needed, and even now finding himself in her bed at her request, he felt it in his bones that it was right to stay this way for as long as she needed.

Greedily grasping at the solace that permeated her senses when he cuddled her, she snuggled closer to him. But was this too close? Really, too close? She found her lips inches away from his and yet he made no effort to distance himself from her. He was pliant and quietly soothing, keeping his arms around her as if he could draw comfort from their intimacy too. She held her breath, glancing at his lips and staying focused on him, on all that he meant to her. It made her heart race and boldly she thought, why the fuck not?

She went ahead and kissed him, tasting their closeness and discovering that it came with more than the consolation she so craved. There was joy, there was mirth, there was delight. She had not even allowed herself an ounce of happiness recently, but his reciprocation had that effect on her, and beyond that his hand found hers and held it tight, their fingers intertwining so naturally that she desired nothing but to stay connected with him. He kissed her back with such readiness; it was clear that they were already attached to each other even if it were not for the distress they shared. It was how much they had come to care for one another, and how effortlessly they became hooked to each other, their deep bond like a seed planted in the soil laying dormant for months and months and then growing overnight, blooming and blossoming all at once.

She was not even sure how long the kiss lasted. It was one moment out of all the years she had lived, but significant enough to last a lifetime. His tender smile was the last thing to grace her eyes before she drifted into an easy, peaceful slumber in his arms.

* * *

“I still find it hard to believe that I actually managed to have a good night’s sleep,” said Danielle to Sehun over breakfast the next morning as she stretched her arms. She smiled faintly and that already seemed like a feat, a miracle, considering how devastated she was. “That's it. Imma need you to hold my hand and cuddle me every night so I don't get nightmares or cold sweats or emotional breakdowns and I can actually sleep.” Her tone was joking but the message was clear to both of them, and she was not afraid to admit it, squeezing his hand. “I need you. And I'm not letting you go.”

He smiled heartily, eventually grinning from ear to ear because never had he ever felt  _so_  needed, so appreciated by anyone before. She made him feel important, validated, and genuinely valued. She could see him for who he truly was, and  _liked_  him for that too. He was so special in her eyes, and she in his. He found it funny how he actually  _feared_  her at first but now that they had bonded, he liked her a lot and it always felt good to be with her. He had come to care deeply for her and although he was shocked that it was because of her emotional turmoil that his own emotional trigger was switched on, it did not make him feel uncomfortable. In fact, as she slept, he thought to himself, what if  _she_  was his emotional tether, the same way Yifan-hyung was  _so_  strongly emotionally bonded, tethered to that woman who was his love when he was a human, who meant so much to him that it overrode the effect of any brainwashing program known to demons?

“Do you think you’d still want me around if it weren't for your grief?” Sehun asked. It was not accusatory; he genuinely wondered.

Danielle nodded. “And I think even without so much going on I would still have kissed you. But the sad truth is that I  _am_  grieving. And I figure that it's better for me to leave this house, like, probably for good, since it doesn't feel like home anymore.”

“Well, if it kills you to stay here, why don't you come to my place? I mean, Junmyeon-hyung is away...indefinitely,” Sehun offered.

“I'll think about it,” Danielle replied and then chuckled wryly. “We make a good pair, huh? Two lonely beings doomed to live forever.”

“We may live forever, but we don't have to be lonely forever,” Sehun beamed. “Especially not you and me. Not when we have each other.”

Danielle smiled at that. Finally. How could she not? She reached out and naturally clasped her hand around his. “At least I have you, right?”

He nodded. “At least you have me.”


	11. The Vampire’s Humanity

“So, how was work today?” Sehun asked, patiently waiting at the exit of the hospital to pick Danielle up after work.

“Therapeutic, in a sense,” she shrugged, but not nonchalantly. “I like saving lives. Sparing plenty of people the pain of losing a loved one.”

“You got any plans for the weekend?”

“Uh, maybe just try to not cry? Also it’s not my shift, but I might help out with the psych ward or the research lab,” she replied. “I'm just desperate for some sense of normalcy.”

“I have an idea. How about we visit the Campbell clan headquarters in Seoul?” He suggested.

She just paused, too emotionally drained to freak out. “Sehun, I'm grieving, not suicidal.”

“It's not a suicide mission. But it's a mission nonetheless. While you were at work today, I received a new assignment. We've acquired all the info we need from the Campbells we've captured, so now, demon agents in the Ministry of Defense, and divisions across the globe since these Campbell hunters are scattered all around the world, have received orders to systematically execute all the Campbells. Wipe them out completely. Just like they tried to do with shapeshifters all these years ago, only they weren't entirely successful. We, however, are going to do better than that. So now I'm inviting you to take part in this massacre with me. So that you can deliver your retribution,” he explained.

She let out an icy laugh, bitterly pleased that these odious hunters were finally meeting their end. A hundred years of threat and more than twenty years of bad blood. The Campbells had taken too much from Danielle and she had always felt like she would not be able to properly avenge Viola if the clan did not get taken down.

And so, Danielle did end up joining Sehun as well as other demons, who also brought their own backup, in raiding the Campbell hunters' lair. Throughout the massacre, as Danielle offed one hunter after another using the demon blades that Sehun had provided, she felt detached from the whole process. She was fucked up, emotionally, and murder was not a very ideal form of therapy but at the very least, it brought closure to her for a wound that was created two decades ago. Perhaps it was true that time could heal everything but what about this time with Katie and Dooyoung? How long was it going to take?

The massacre went on without delay. Unending screams, weapons clashing and heads rolling. As more and more of them met their end, the screams died down and other noises caught Danielle's attention, something she was particularly sensitive to: a baby's cries.

She located the infant in a room on the top floor, and there the baby was, innocent and defenceless. He had no idea what was going on, just that the noises downstairs were loud and unnerving and must have woken him from his nap.

Her instincts told her to help him fight for his survival rather than end him. For what seemed to be a long time now, she had felt nothing about anything, just numb and hopeless. But now, looking at the Campbell baby and listening to his cries, it had struck an emotional chord in her heart. The protective, maternal streak she had always had was called to arms. But if she was determined to follow her instincts, then she better make a move now, because Sehun was also in the room and he most definitely would not hesitate to bring the baby to the same end as the rest of the clan had met.

"Don't," Danielle croaked, her throat dry as she took a hesitant step toward the baby, not quite daring to touch it or hold it but also feeling like she needed to make her stance clear. She shook her head and repeated herself. "Don't."

Sehun protested, but only inwardly.  _I have my orders. I'm going to get in trouble if I don't follow the commands that I was given, and I don't want that._  The voice in his head went on, but he kept those thoughts to himself. All he did was stare thoughtfully at Danielle for a moment, before putting down the arm he had raised, no longer in the pose to use the blade on the infant.

He sighed lightly and looked at himself, covered in blood, but not his own blood. What a stark reminder that he was capable of destruction. In fact, he was very capable of it, but was that all that he could do? Was that all that there was to it? His life purpose?

He understood that Danielle had intended for this infant to live. And even if this baby would eventually get murdered in cold blood, it would not be by his hand or hers. Both of them could hear that the demons and their company downstairs were gradually making their way out of the lair, believing that their job here was done. Sehun and Danielle followed suit and on the way, she spoke. "I wasn't sure that you were going to listen to me and agree to let that baby live."

"To be honest, I also didn't expect that you would stop me, nor did I expect that I would agree to it," he admitted. "I want to kill Campbell hunters because it's my job. But you want that for a completely different reason and I'm sure your hatred for them is strong whereas my attitude toward them is just, well, apathy. So the way I see it is that if you hate them so much but you still want this baby to be spared, then you must have a very good reason for it, a reason that's stronger than your contempt for them and your desire for retribution. And whatever reason it was, it must mean a lot to you and to your identity. You've already lost so much and if this instance of showing mercy brings you at least a tiny bit of comfort, helps you get back on your feet emotionally, then I wouldn't do anything to get in your way."

"You just trust me that much," she replied, surprised and touched that he felt this way.

"I guess I do," he nodded. "You don't have to justify yourself to me. In my eyes, you could never do wrong. And even if you do, well, then it means you're human enough to make mistakes. And how I wish I had humanity."

"I believe you do have that," she said softly, but with conviction. "You're capable of trusting someone, of following your heart even when you were instructed to value authority over your independent thoughts. That means you chose to be more than just a cog in the machine. It means something."

That filled his heart up with warmth. "I would love to be able to see myself through your eyes. I think I am always most human that way, and most worthy."

"Then every day I shall remind you that even though it is demon blood that runs in your veins, as long as you are making an effort to fight for your humanity, then even when it gets tough, you're worthy," she smiled, this time finding it less tiresome to  _feel_ some mirth and express that. She clasped her hand in his and the other reached out to affectionately thumb his cheek, pushing the hair out of his face. "We are each other's humanity. So always hold on to me, and I'll hold on to you."

"That sounds perfect to me," he replied lovingly, leaning down slightly to kiss her. There they were in the middle of the woods, exhausted more from the burdens they carried with them than from the physical fight, but one kiss meant so much and strengthened both of them so much. They needed each other and completed each other, like pieces of a puzzle. And even though many other pieces were missing, or broken, or could never be recovered, at least they fit together perfectly, and that was enough comfort to last a while.

* * *

Later that day, in the evening when Sehun was on his own, he gave his Yifan-hyung a call, and told him about how the mission had gone today, including his ‘failure’ to ensure that each and every last one of the Campbell hunters had been annihilated.

Sehun sighed. “Hyung, do you think I made a mistake?”

“Well of course you made a mistake. I warned you against letting your vampire ‘friend’ influence your judgement. This is gonna get back to Senior Management and they won’t be pleased with you, at all,” Yifan replied in frustration.

“But one infant survivor is not going to pose much threat to us or to Senior Management,” Sehun murmured in protest.

“It’s not about that. Senior Management wants to test your ability to resist influence from outsiders that are not necessarily allies of Hell. You most certainly failed their test and you think they’re gonna be happy with that?”

“I just — ugh, damn. What should I do now? Hyung, help me,” he pleaded.

“I do not have the obligation to clean up after any other demon’s mess,” Yifan stated chidingly. “Besides, I’m already busy enough being a babysitter.”

“Is that what Senior Agents do now? Wow, I can’t wait to be promoted,” said Sehun dryly.

“Actually, I’m more like a nanny,” Yifan revealed, sighing. Ever since Special Forces had taken the Cambion baby into their custody, they had relegated Yifan to the role of Dooyoung’s nanny. It made sense for him to be appointed Dooyoung’s caregiver, seeing as he was the most human demon they had, so it seemed reasonable for him to be the mentor to a half-demon half-human fledgling. Dooyoung was an absolute handful, and Yifan had no experience in taking care of children, but this was Junmyeon’s kid and so Yifan tried his best to do a decent job in looking after Dooyoung and raising him. Dooyoung was no longer an infant, and looked like a 7-year-old human boy now. It was still scary, considering he was born a mere couple weeks ago. Generally, he was not a difficult child and normally did not give Yifan a hard time — it was as if he understood that Yifan was a friend, not a foe. But when agents from Special Forces came by regularly to carry out their inspections on him, he threw temper tantrums and it was these instances that convinced those around him that he had inherited none of Katie’s gentleness.

Everything about Dooyoung that Yifan had told Sehun, Sehun had reported to Danielle, who was still very invested in Dooyoung’s welfare even though the boy was so out of her reach.

“He’s growing up so fast. I just hope that he’s growing well and that he’s happy,” Danielle remarked. “Wherever he is, I’d want him to be someone that Katie would be proud of,” she added, and then treated herself to a small smile. “Sehun, do you think we could stay like this every night? Just lying in bed and talking and, I don’t know, enjoying each other’s company.”

Sehun smiled too. “I’d love to be here with you. Anywhere with you. As long as you want me around, and as long as I’m not whisked away to another part of the world when I get missions assigned to me.”

“Don’t worry about it. I suck at providing stability too. Gotta move to another town every few years to keep up the façade that I’m not immortal. It sucks. I’m just grateful for the time we get to spend together. I cherish it.”

“So do I,” he replied heartily, adjusting the pillow and settling closer to her. Under this lighting coming from the lamp behind him on the nightstand, the scar on his right cheek was made more prominently visible, and she had the urge to affectionately run her thumb across his scar.

“Where did you get that from?” She asked softly.

He pouted. “I don’t remember at all, which means it’s probably related to what I went through with my family from my life as a human.”

This made her think about  _her_  life as a human too. It was more than four centuries ago but some things she still remembered as clear as day, especially when a village accident had caused her younger brother to almost drown. Luckily her husband came to his rescue so the boy kept his life, but along with it quite a hideous scar on the left side of his face.

She stayed upon the thoughts of her brother. They grew up together in the village and in spite of their 10-year age gap they were very close. When she was disgraced for getting pregnant with the child of a man that was not her husband, she fled the village. At the time, he was still a bit too young to understand her crime, but he believed with strong conviction that there was no way his loving sister would do anything to deserve such a harsh penalty. As she had left him behind, she often wondered how she was doing. All this time, she had no idea that once he grew up, he tried to look for her, but as she kept moving and going from country to country, living under various aliases, it was almost impossible for him to track her down. Throughout the centuries, it was destiny that he should stumble upon the supernatural, and become a part of it. He had acquired immortality like his sister did, except he was no bloodsucker; he became a warlock.

“What are you thinking of?” Sehun asked, his tone both tender and curious.

Danielle smiled. “My family, from a long, long time ago.”

“Oh. Your husband?” Sehun prodded.

“Yeah.” Sometimes it slipped her mind that she was once married because for a much longer time she stayed single and, like she always liked to say to Baekhyun, she did not do relationships. “But also my brother. Have I ever told you about him?”

“No. Tell me,” said Sehun eagerly as if awaiting a bedtime story.

“Okay,” Danielle began. “So when I was 10, my parents had the son that they’ve always wanted. But when he was still very young, our parents passed away and so I was really the one who raised him. He w—”

The doorbell rang and cut her off from the rest of the story. She propped herself up with one arm and frowned. “It’s midnight; who could possibly…” she uttered. Getting out of bed, she went to the door and took a look from the peephole. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw who it was — and no, it was not a police officer, it was not a hunter, it was not someone she thought could harm her.

Still shocked, she yanked the door open, and simply gawked at the man in utter disbelief. She was completely speechless as she eyed him from head to toe. He just looked to be in his twenties, but how was this possible?

The man smiled a bit nervously, making him appear less intimidating as the ugly scar on his left cheek tended to scare people away. Licking his lips, he spoke. “Hello, sister.”


	12. The Vampire’s Brother

"Jacob...how is this possible?" Danielle uttered as she took a good look of the grownup version of her little brother. The way he smiled at her was a dead giveaway; it had to be him for it bore the same childlike delight as when they last met.

"It's a long story," Jacob replied with a happy chuckle. "I will tell you all about it if you let me come in."

"Yes of course..." said Danielle, still in a daze and in awe. In her long, long life she had seen a lot of supernatural things, but never in her wildest dreams had she expected to be reunited with a family member, especially not right after losing two. "I have company though, and I think he will be interested in what you have to say as well," she added just as Sehun walked out of the bedroom and into the living room, looking puzzled as well but not alarmed.

Jacob, however, was the one who was startled once he saw Sehun. He was not scared of the demon but he did look quite concerned.

“You…” Jacob began, spluttering in shock. Pointing at the demon and thinking hard, he blurted, “Oh Sehun?”

Danielle glanced back and forth between the two men, once again surprised. “Wait, do you two know each other?”

“I’m afraid I don’t know him…” Sehun answered honestly, frowning in confusion but without malice. But rather than asking how Jacob knew him, he simply deduced that they must have crossed paths when he was a human, just that he could no longer remember anything from that time so he would not be able to recognize the other man.

Jacob massaged his temples. “Let’s all sit down. I have a lot of explaining to do.”

* * *

In the 1620s, a young man by the name of Jacob Creighton stumbled into a brothel in France. He was on a quest; in his hand was a sketch of his long lost sister, and in his belongings was enough money to buy him food and wine and sex and, most importantly, information. He only had concern for locating his sister and none for the prostitutes or the entertainment they served to provide. So far he had had no luck, but this time fate had allowed him to meet a man who had given him crucial information about Danielle’s whereabouts. Not just any man, but a vampire, in fact the very vampire who had turned Danielle into one of his kind. He did not know where she was, but had told Jacob enough to confirm that she was undead and immortal. He also gave some of his blood to Jacob, and told him to find a witch or a warlock who could perform a spell that would indicate the approximate locations of all the vampires that he was responsible for turning. Granted, there were hundreds because the vampire had been around for a long, long time now. But this was a start for Jacob and so he did as he was instructed, going from town to town in search of the only family he had ever known, stopping at nothing even if he needed immortality to give him enough time to complete the search list. Over the years, under the tutelage of several powerful warlocks, he too had become well-versed in magic.

“And now here I am. I'm three quarters into my search list and finally I've found you, my long lost sister,” he sighed in relief, exhausted but overjoyed. “I finally have a family again.”

“I miss having a family too,” Danielle replied, tears pooling in her eyes. Perhaps this time she would not have to worry about losing Jacob because he was immortal; he was not going to die on her and she could really use someone like that. She believed it would help her feel whole again if he could stay in her life. “I wanted to be reunited with you sooner,” she revealed. “But no luck. You know, I tried to return to our hometown to look for you. It must have been, like, a couple decades since we last met. I secretly went back to see how you were doing, but you weren’t there anymore. I thought you’d have settled down and had family of your own; I didn’t know you’d also embarked on your own search for me. But anyway, I just want to apologize for not being there for you. You were just 13 at the time...you shouldn’t have had to raise yourself.”

“For centuries we’ve been separated,” he said. “But now we can spend forever catching up. And I’m not a child anymore. I grew up just fine and I’m a man now, for 400 years, and counting. So don’t be fooled.”

She laughed. “No, you will always be a baby to me.”

As they chatted, Sehun sat back, listening silently. He kept his gaze fixed on Danielle most of the time, observing how the tears brimmed in her eyes and yet she allowed smiles to be drawn across her face, sorrowful and wistful yet joyful all at the same time. So much emotion. It was rare, close to impossible, for Sehun to feel any of that. Intrigued, he wrinkled his nose, receptive to the changes in her feelings. He remember his Junmyeon-hyung talking about how he could smell people’s arousal as demons picked up on changes in humans’ emotions based on different scents and odors. Likewise, Sehun had grown accustomed to the smell of Danielle’s grief lately. But ever since Jacob stepped into the house, Sehun noticed that the familiar smell of grief was evanescing. It was even as if the whole house became brighter, warmer, lovelier. Slowly, he took a deeper breath, allowing the newly elicited emotions to pervade his nostrils: the comfort, the relief, the elation of an unexpected family reunion.

Even as Jacob continued to explain the time he crossed paths with Sehun, the demon kept quiet and listened attentively. Even though he had lived through all of it as a human, now as a demon he remembered nothing.

“I’m no doctor but I’ve also had to pick up some human jobs along the way. I became a counselor at a university, and Sehun was one of the students that got referred to me. I wasn’t originally the one in charge of his case, but the counselor following his case got fired so I had to take over. So he told me that when he was a kid, he was abused by his parents and so he always wanted revenge on them. Later on he got adopted, and although his adoptive parents were kind to him, they only suppressed his desire for vengeance and he didn’t have the chance to properly reconcile himself with the hatred and anger in his heart. And by the time he approached a counselor for help — not me, the other one — it was already when even he himself was scared by his own aggressive behavior toward even the innocent people around him. Unfortunately the counselor who handled his case was actually an undercover demon agent who persuaded him to murder his biological parents and then his adoptive family. And by the time I stepped in, it was already too late. That demon was on a mission to recruit ‘troubled youngsters’ and clearly she succeeded as Sehun joined Hell. I never saw him again. I couldn’t save him, but at least I could help the other students, those who were fighting their own demons.”

Normally Sehun remained impassive and there would not even be much change in his facial expressions. But after listening to this account of his human life, full of suffering and pain and cruelty, Sehun was shocked. Like, actually, genuinely shocked. By demon standards of morality, nobody would bat an eye at the atrocities he had committed. But by human standards, it was utterly horrific. His hands were curled up into fists, appalled and disappointed. No matter what human or demon, one thing seemed to be a constant: he was only ever capable of destruction. That was the extent of his worth. He began to wonder if he ever had any humanity in the first place.

“Sehun. Sehun??” Danielle shook him by the shoulder gently to draw him out of his thoughts. “Are you alright?”

Ashamed of himself, he stood up abruptly and walked away. Worried, Danielle followed him into her room and wrapped her arms around him in a back hug. He was unable to even utter a word, only blinking madly in an attempt to fight back the tears that were threatening to fall.

“Sehun, I’m sorry you’ve had to go through all of that,” said Danielle sorrowfully. “But you —”

“I wish I never had to know about this,” he cut in with a shaky voice. “Because now it’s gonna stay in my mind forever. It’s going to haunt me forever and that’s the price I have to pay for all the destruction I’ve brought about. If this is my punishment and I have to suffer like this, fine. Whatever. I’ll just deal with it; I probably deserve it anyway. But now  _you_ also know about what I’ve done, to my own family, my  _families_  actually…” he could not even say it. He feared it with his whole being, feared that she would not be able to accept him knowing his past. Sure they bonded over murder and led the massacre together, but with the hunters it was a different deal because it was kill or be killed. But with his families, it was pure cruelty and vengeance and creating more pain and suffering. He brought nothing good to this world.

She refused to let him go even as she felt his tears drop onto her hands around his waist. “It doesn’t make me love you any less,” she stated, pressing her cheek to his back. “You don’t deserve this and I don’t want you to suffer. But you have got to stop punishing yourself too…”

“How? How do I stop? How do I do anything that doesn’t lead to unending cycles of misery and agony?” He questioned in frustration.

“We’ll figure it out together.”

He paused. “‘We’? ‘Together’?”

She nodded. “You’re an irreplaceable part of my life. I will stick around for you and we will deal with our pain together. We are not doomed. We have each other.”

“But...now you have your brother back. I didn’t think you’d need me anymore…”

“But I do. I need you,” she said in reassurance. She needed him, and she no longer hated that she did, unlike when she was vulnerable and he came to her rescue. This time she would be the one to save him from himself. “And yes, I have Jacob. I have family. I also had family when Katie was around, and also Dooyoung, but that didn’t stop me from wanting you to be in my life and stay, did it?”

He let out a sigh in relief and turned to face her. “I want you to never stop wanting me,” he said to her, as tenderly she traced the trails of tears upon his face with her thumb. “And I will also never stop loving you.”

“Good,” she replied softly. “I can definitely do that.” She leaned in to kiss the small scar on his right cheek — she loved his scars and flaws and weaknesses. She was about to caress his face and plant the same gentle kiss on his lips, but a light cough in the background reminded her that Jacob was still here.

“I don’t mean to interrupt and I hate to be the bearer of bad news but we  _might_  be in a bit of danger. There’s been a drastic surge in energy level,” Jacob reported nervously.

“How come?” Danielle frowned. “What does this mean for us?”

“I’ve experienced this before, and every warlock in the vicinity can feel it with me. Last time we felt this, we discovered that it was due to the birth of a Cambion. And then a while after that, the energy level suddenly plummeted,” Jacob explained. “As Cambions can’t be killed it means they must have been transported somewhere outside of our energy field, most likely Hell as that’s where the Cambion’s demonic roots are from, and it’s not like they’d get to access Heaven or Purgatory or whatever. And now, that huge ball of energy is back. I can feel it really, really strongly, which means a Cambion has probably returned and it’s pretty damn close to our location. That’s why it might pose as a threat to us. Cambions are highly dangerous creatures, their general behavior is so unpredictable, and no one really knows how much harm they might bring to us.” He breathed in deeply. “You two wouldn’t happen to know who or what is responsible for this Cambion activity, would you?”


	13. The Vampire's Plight

If Doctor Do Kyungsoo thought that today was just going to be another ordinary, uneventful day in the A&E ward of the hospital he worked at, he would be wrong. So very wrong.

First he was assigned the case of a boy who looked about 13 years old, but nothing else was known about him. There was no ID, no wallet, no phone on him. Apparently he had passed out on the streets and someone had called the ambulance for him.

When the patient regained consciousness, he was attended by a nurse. “Hello, my dear,” she spoke. “You’re in the hospital because you passed out. It’s due to dehydration so you’re probably feeling weak right now but you don’t have to worry, okay? You’ll feel better once you’re properly hydrated, so for now just try to stay relaxed and lie down for a bit. The doctor hasn’t found any other medical problem, so once you’re stable, you can go home. Can you tell me how I can contact your parents so they can come to pick you up?”

The boy slowly moved his head to solemnly look the nurse in the eye, his deadpanning a contrast to her efforts to sound friendly and reassuring. Although he inherited Katie’s gentle eyes, he sounded cynical and murderous when he spoke. “My mother is dead and my father is in prison.”

The nurse was slightly taken aback for a moment, finding the boy’s reaction slightly creepy, but before she could proceed, Kyungsoo had returned. “I’ll take over,” he offered, and allowed her to go check on other patients.

Kyungsoo picked up the patient file at the end of the bed. He had already had suspicions about the boy’s identity, but still asked, “what’s your name?”

He did not answer, only staring at the vampire curiously. “You don't know?” He questioned. “Don't you remember me? You were the first to pick me up when I was born. It hasn't been that long.”

The vampire doctor looked grim but stayed calm anyway. “Why have you returned?”

A mysterious smile was drawn on Dooyoung’s face. “Can you keep a secret, Doctor?”

Suddenly, Kyungsoo’s pager rang. He knew where he was needed and it made him look both alarmed and worried. “Stay here, I’ll be right back,” he said to Dooyoung, although he had a hunch that the young Cambion would not do as he was told.

* * *

As Danielle wanted to investigate the curious case of a Cambion’s return, counting on the possibility that it would mean there was a chance for her to be reunited with Dooyoung, Jacob led the way, guided by his instincts as a warlock and the raging energy levels. As they drove, Sehun sat in silence and ruminated on the implications if it was true that Dooyoung was here and no longer in Hell. There was no reason why Special Forces would want to allow the hybrid to stray from their jurisdiction; even though Sehun was sure that his Yifan-hyung must be trying his best, still Dooyoung had not been training for a long time and was still too unpredictable and dangerous even in Hell, let alone outside.

“We’re close. It’s got to be in one of these buildings,” said Jacob, looking around. “That one,” he pointed.

Danielle frowned slightly but not in distrust. “That’s the hospital I work at,” she explained. “Are you sure?”

“It’s in there,” Jacob reiterated. “The energy level is off the charts.”

* * *

Kyungsoo rushed to the oncology ward where a  _mortal_  patient awaited his attention, and did what he had to do. Once the patient’s condition was stable, he had a word with the patient’s boyfriend — Baekhyun.

“How is Yunhee? Did it work?” Baekhyun inquired urgently.

Kyungsoo shook his head gravely. “I did what I could. Her system just rejects my vampire blood. If I feed it to her, she throws up. If I inject it into her bloodstream, it flows right back out and she seizes. It’s just not safe to try anymore. She could die from my attempts before we have any success,” he sighed. “This is the first time my blood gets rejected — and I don’t think it’s even medical. It might be a supernatural force at work, but I don’t know what.”

“So...if we can’t use your blood to heal her...she’ll just collapse more and more frequently until her systems shut down?”

“Without a functional immune system, pretty much…” replied the doctor apologetically. “I’ve switched her meds and put her on another combination; I hope it’ll be more effective this time. It’d be wise to keep her here for a bit longer so I can monitor her condition regularly.”

Baekhyun nodded in agreement. “Thank you, Kyungsoo. Can I go in and see her now?”

“She’s too weak right now. Come back in a few hours maybe. In the meantime, there’s something else I want to show you,” said Kyungsoo. “Come with me.”

* * *

Opening the door to the room where Kyungsoo had last seen Dooyoung, the doctor was surprised to see that the boy was still there. But Dooyoung was even more surprised to see that Kyungsoo had returned  _with company_.

_“The Cambion must not be born.”_  The same sentence kept ringing in Dooyoung’s head, over and over again, ever since Baekhyun stepped into the room. Having superhuman memory, Dooyoung could recall that moments before his birth, this was Baekhyun’s bold statement. The boy’s stomach lurched in anger as he came face to face with the monster who tried to have him aborted or killed or whatever. It compelled Dooyoung to lunge at Baekhyun ferociously, but had barely scratched him when Kyungsoo pulled the boy right back in an attempt to restrain him albeit taken aback by his sudden display of aggression. Dooyoung let out a roar in defiance, mentally manipulating the glass of water on the nightstand and making it fall. And just like he wanted, it made Kyungsoo slip and tumble backwards. Dooyoung wasted no time in unleashing his anger on the monster, retrieving a pair of demon blades from his pockets and getting ready for close combat. Feeling the need to defend himself yet uneager to maim the young boy, Baekhyun fought only to deflect and block all the incoming attacks, which took skill and patience, neither of which Dooyoung had. Baekhyun thought about taking the fight outside, but ultimately decided against it as it would surely draw a lot of attention and innocents could be harmed. Dooyoung was too volatile in the face of someone he considered his enemy, and Baekhyun had to think fast and come up with a way to end this.

When the door burst open, Dooyoung was clearly distracted, especially when he saw that it was Danielle who was at the door along with two men he had never seen before. Baekhyun thought that he could take this chance to subdue the Cambion boy, but ultimately decided it would be much more effective if he could just leave the room, so he practically bolted toward the door. Dooyoung, however, had quick reflexes and followed suit in the blink of an eye. He caught on quickly and tried to take this last chance to use his weapon on the monster. If Baekhyun would not let him live, he would not let the monster live either.

Baekhyun moved fast and pushed a shocked Jacob out of the way. He had not meant to push so hard, but he did and Jacob lost his balance, causing him to fall forward — and the blade in Dooyoung’s hand to dig into his chest.

Jacob fell to his knees, eyes widening but unable to make any sound to vocalize the sharp pain in his chest. Immediately both doctors scrambled to Jacob’s rescue, and by now both Baekhyun and Dooyoung had realized what they had done. The former stopped in his tracks but stayed calm and made sure to maintain a safe distance from the latter, who looked absolutely horrified. He shot one final glance at Baekhyun before deciding to give up on this pursuit. Instead he ran in the opposite direction, fleeing the scene in fear of the repercussions of what he had done.

* * *

Not knowing where he could go next, Dooyoung decided to return to the very place that he had so sneakily escaped from: Hell. At least, he was familiar with that place.

Just like he did all the times he was scared, he ran to Yifan, pretty much the only one in Hell who was available to care about his well-being.

“Thank goodness you’re back! Where have you been? Do you have any idea how worried I was? Don’t you dare run off again,” said Yifan urgently. “Special Forces could come for an inspection any time and if they find that you’re not under my close supervision, I could be penalized for not doing my job well and you could be transferred to some other demon’s custody. Is that what you want?”

“No,” Dooyoung replied glumly. “I’ll...I’ll fight them if they come after you.”

Yifan sighed and patted the boy’s head gently, taking comfort in the knowledge that they were equally protective of each other. “Go take a shower,” the demon instructed. “And then it’s time to eat.”

Dooyoung nodded obediently and mentally turned on the tap to run a bath as he made his way there. At the same time, Yifan received the notification that a Junior Agent was here to see him. He sat down in his office and found that Sehun was here.

“Hyung,” said the younger demon worriedly. “About Junmyeon-hyung’s kid...I have to tell you about what he did just now. Why did you let him outside Hell? It’s dangerous for him and also for everyone around him. He killed someone just now.”

Yifan facepalmed. “Let me deal with him later. He’s not a bad kid, you know. He just has a hard time regulating his emotions and controlling his powers, using them for the right purposes. And I’m trying to work on that with him. But it hasn’t been easy, especially with Special Forces looking over my shoulder all the time, and he’s really so young...you get fooled by his appearance. He’s a baby, really. He should be around his parents; he  _needs_  to be. But right now I’m the closest thing to a parent he’s got. Poor boy.” He shook his head. “Anyway, there is something I need to discuss with you too.”

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Sehun replied gloomily.

“Well, your hunch is right. I do have bad news, unfortunately. And don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“It’s because I spared the Campbell baby, isn’t it…” he sighed.

“Yup. Have you ever thought about the repercussions? You may not get promoted to Senior Agent. Do you know that you are facing strong competition? Obviously not everybody can be promoted...but there are definitely demons of your rank who are much more ruthless than you, and much less in touch with their human side. So, what I’m saying is that you’re not that in favor with Senior Management due to your affiliations with other irrelevant parties. It’s the reason why you get sidetracked when you’re supposed to be focused on the mission,” Yifan explained.

“Is that  _your_  belief or are you simply retelling me what Senior Management believes?” Sehun folded his arms and pouted a little.

“I think you know the answer.”

He shrugged. “Well, what am I supposed to do?”

“The simplest solution is to cut off contact with your vampire more-than-friend,” Yifan stated.

“That’s out of the question,” Sehun asserted sternly. “There’s no way I’m going to do that.”

“I know,” replied the older demon. “I’m sure you’ve only grown more attached.”

“Attached?” Sehun raised his eyebrows. “An understatement about how I feel toward the one and only person who accepts me for all that I am and finds me worthy.”

“The other option would be taking on more individual missions to earn more points,” Yifan suggested.

“At the same time as maintaining my relationship with Danielle? Yeah, sounds like a plan.”

“Oh, it’s a relationship now?”

He paused. “She doesn’t do relationships, but our feelings for each other are real and that’s what matters.”

“Either way, Senior Management can’t stand your romantic involvement with someone irrelevant to your job. Don’t you see? They’ll allow you to have ‘assistants’, but—”

“Oh, please. Back then Yixing-hyung may have recruited some ‘assistants’ when he was bored but I am utterly uninterested,” Sehun whined. “I just want Danielle. Let me live and get those extra credits.”

“I’ll try to negotiate with Senior Management about this,” Yifan offered. “I’ll get back to you, hopefully with good news.”

“Yeah, keep me posted. But since when did you have so much bargaining power?”

“Since I became pretty much a full-time nanny and have been single-handedly raising one of the most dangerous and powerful creatures ever,” answered Yifan. “Being Dooyoung’s guardian is challenging and daunting but I guess it does come with certain perks.”

“Perhaps then  _you’ll_  get the job promotion before I do, hyung.”

Yifan smiled mysteriously. “That’s not what I’m really after but, yeah, maybe.” Although he could never really control the Cambion boy, he was still the one with the greatest degree of influence over Dooyoung. So why shouldn’t Yifan use that to his advantage?


	14. The Vampire’s Surprise

How many vampire doctors does it take to revive a warlock from death by a demon blade? No one knew because the odds of this happening were slim to none. Although Kyungsoo and Danielle tried to resuscitate Jacob, with the best of their medical knowledge as far as it concerned treating  _human_  patients, they did so glumly and numbly as neither of them was actually hopeful that it would work.

“I’m sorry…” Kyungsoo spoke quietly, sighing at Jacob’s body.

By now Danielle was just so  _inured_  to the deaths of the people around her that she shed no more tears. “It’s not your fault; we did what we could,” she stated monotonously. “It can’t get worse than this, can it?” She forced herself to smile, knowing that every time she thought it could not be worse, it  _did_  get worse, and this time was probably not going to be an exception either.

“No, seriously,” said Kyungsoo, beginning to get frustrated. “You deserve better.”

“You know, I’m beginning to think that Baekhyun is right,” said Danielle ruefully, which surprised Kyungsoo.

“He is usually right,” he replied hesitantly. “And you usually hate it.”

She shrugged. “I’m starting to agree with him. Perhaps Dooyoung should really have been aborted.”

Kyungsoo had to stifle a gasp. “Why would you say that…”

“Because he is the reason why both Katie and Jacob are dead,” she explained spitefully. “It’s not what Katie would’ve wanted, but at least she would be alive and at least Jacob would still be here and I wouldn’t have to deal with one loss after another. I never knew it was possible to be in  _so_  much pain. It’s just...utter agony. No, more than that. I don’t even have words for it.”

“Please let me know what I can do to make you feel better…”

Danielle sat down on the chair right next to the nightstand and buried her face in her hands for a moment before looking back up again. “Can you bring back the dead?”

Suddenly Jacob bolted upright in a sharp intake of breath, producing a loud gasp. His eyes widened, legs kicking, and hands scrambling to grab hold onto something. Both Danielle and Kyungsoo screamed in fright, utterly astonished and could not believe their eyes.

“What the fuck. Jacob, h-how is this possible…” Danielle exclaimed, placing her hand on her chest to calm herself down, thinking she was going to have a heart attack. She struggled to gather her thoughts, wishing to speak coherently, but could only splutter to get all the words out. “N-not that I’m c-co-complaining; I’m glad to have you back but did you die? Are you alive? How??”

It seemed like Jacob himself was equally surprised, still panting and looking around in disbelief. Then there were knocks on the door and Baekhyun let himself in. “Hey,” he said casually — just so characteristic of him whenever he was surrounded by chaos. “Danielle. A word?” He requested, gesturing for her to come outside with him.

She glanced back and forth between her ex and her brother and her colleague, entirely astounded and befuddled. It was Kyungsoo who came to his senses first and and piped up. “Maybe I should tend to him first,” he offered, already beginning to check Jacob’s pulse and blood pressure. Danielle nodded and followed Baekhyun outside.

“Look,” Baekhyun began. “I know you’re in a bit of a shock right now —”

“Yeah, just a little bit.”

“Mm hmm. But get this: I went to Purgatory just now and made some deals with someone there, and long story short, I brought your brother back,” he explained. “But only as a human. He can no longer practice his warlock magic and he’s not gonna stay this young forever.”

Danielle’s jaw dropped again. “You did  _that_?!”

“Yeah. My impact,” he replied calmly. “This favor comes at a price of course. No worries, though — I’ve already handled it. Now you have your brother back and that’s what matters, right?”

“Right…” she nodded hesitantly. “But why did you do it? I thought you didn’t care.”

“But I do care. He did kind of die because of me. I didn’t want you to be in more pain, and I would hate to be the one at least partly responsible for causing it,” he explained. “I know I’m a monster in your eyes and I’m not going to deny that I will always choose my own survival over others’. It’s what I’ve been doing throughout my long, long life,” he added, but did not reveal that he was vulnerable to demon blades forged in Hell too. “But I don’t want you to think that I only ever disappoint you,” he admitted, recalling their previous confrontation over Katie’s death. “I don’t want to be categorized as ‘a good person who does bad things’ or ‘a bad person who does good things’ or whatever. Not all monsters do monstrous things. I’m just who I am and I have my own reasons for the decisions I make. I don’t really care what others think of me, even when I offend them or hurt them. Not Yunhee, not Naeun, but when it comes to you I feel differently.” He smiled at her, a smile so sweet, so saintly that it could make anyone turn a blind eye to his cruelty and manipulation.

“Baekhyun, I’m thankful to you for doing what you did just to bring Jacob back...but I don’t feel that way about you anymore,” she replied softly. It was not meant to be hurtful or dismissive. It was just an honest account of her feelings and if she ever had a problem with his playful deceitfulness then being honest and open about how she felt was the least she could do.

“Are you sure about that?” He shifted closer to her, not to intimidate her but just out of eagerness to be close with her again and to reconnect with her. There were times when he could feel free to hold her hand, or pull her in, or play with her hair, and know that she would be comfortable with it. But it had been quite some time since they had been as intimate in any way. While his feelings had always been complex and usually not pleasant to think about, to say the least it was quite clear that  _her_ feelings had shifted.

“Yeah,” she answered firmly. “And I don’t think you did what you did just so you could make me fall for you again or fall deeper. And if you just wanted to get in my pants, you didn’t have to go the whole hog. So, did you want something from me, or…?”

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you. I’m honestly surprised at myself for not having an ulterior motive...and what I did hardly even counts as a means to an end. I can’t really say it was done to appease you or to make you happy — I should have been doing that when we were together although I don’t think I did a particularly good job at that — rather, I would say that I guess I just wanted to alleviate some of your unhappiness. Remove some barriers to your pursuit of whatever it is that you could want in life. Call it whatever you want — I did it for you anyway and not for anything in return.”

She nodded in understanding. He as a person was always complicated and so were things between the two of them. She thought she liked him for the enigma that he was, but that did not mean a relationship between them could be healthy, or stable, or lasting. There just did not need to be any resentment or any negative sentiments, in spite of their differences.

“Thank you, Baekhyun,” she said sincerely. “My life has been quite a mess as of late but I’m not rejecting the possibility of happiness. Likewise I do believe that you  _can_  make decisions and do things out of the kindness of your heart, should you choose to — and it would be great if you could always choose to do that.”

“Yeah,” he grinned. “Anyway, I should probably let you get back to your brother. And I have a girlfriend to check on…”

“You’re  _still_  with her? She’s such a bitch though,” she replied warily. “And not just to me! Naeun has told me stuff too.”

“Ah, well, Yunhee and I, we go way back…” he said noncommittally. “And I mean  _way_  back.”

“Hmm, whatever. Not my relationship, not my problem,” she said with a shrug, but eventually smiled. “I’ll see you around.”

* * *

As promised, Yifan contacted Sehun when the older demon had gathered a number of missions for the younger to complete. The Junior Agent wasted no time and began to make preparations right away, and that was when Danielle found him at the table in the study, a number of files laid out before him. His eyebrows furrowed together in concentration as he was entirely focused on arranging these files, documents that contained itineraries, photographs, reports, and a range of other stuff. As he was quite occupied, she figured she could return after a few moments. Maybe order some bubble tea and food and get it delivered. She was not sure if she was bored or hungry, but was definitely more in the mood for human food than for human blood.

“Hey,” said Sehun, turning around before Danielle could be completely out of sight.

“Hey, I thought you were busy working,” she said as she went up to him again.

“Yeah, but I won’t take long. I’m definitely taking you out for dinner tonight,” he replied, a smile slowly growing on his face. She leaned in to give him a peck on the lips before curiously looking over his shoulder to see what he was so engrossed in. But then she frowned as she paid attention to the picture on the top right hand corner of each profile he was rearranging and tidying. She understood easily enough that these were his missions and it seemed as if the people in these mugshots were his targets. But a chill was sent down her spine when she got a closer look and discovered that all these people looked familiar to her.

“Wait a minute…” she said under her breath, tapping and gripping Sehun’s forearm tensely. “These people...all of them...I recognize them. I...oh my goodness. They’re people I’ve healed using my vampire blood. This one,” she pointed at the profile of a young lady. “A flight attendant, right? Kyungsoo and I were flying back from New York and she had a heart attack in the galley; she had no meds with her so I gave her my blood. And then this one…” she pointed at the profile of a man at the other end of the desk. “ _Nasty_  industrial accident. As for that one,” she pointed at another one. “Kid barely escaped the fire and got 20% burned skin. I couldn’t even save her sister. This can’t possibly be a coincidence, can it? Did you pull these right out of the hospital records? Of all the patients that got treated under my care?”

“No way. These files were given to me by Senior Management; I didn’t have any say in it,” he answered, beginning to get concerned too. “But you’re right. I don’t believe it’s a coincidence either.”

Danielle chewed on her lip as she thought about how the demons in charge of running Hell could possibly have access to the records of the patients she treated before. It was not surprising that they knew who she was, considering she was invited to join the massacre they were organizing, but did that mean they also did a background check on her? More chillingly, were they sending someone to stalk on her? Perhaps they had a spy...one of their agents working as a member of the hospital staff. It was plausible. Now that she thought about it, there was this clerk who always gave her a funny look whenever she passed by...she never felt the need to pay much attention to that, but now she felt like it was beginning to make sense and that was just creepy.

As she ruminated on this, Sehun snapped and his mood changed drastically. He looked livid and grabbed all the sheets on the desk into one pile, not caring that they would get crumpled. “Let me deal with this,” he said to Danielle in utter displeasure as he stuffed all of it into a briefcase. “I think I know why this is happening.”


	15. The Vampire’s Demon

Sehun stormed into Hell, his wrath intimidating nobody because he was merely a low-ranking demon agent. He bypassed all the higher-ranking agents in his way, and had only one destination in mind: the Head Office of the Ministry of Defense. Screw everybody else; he was going to speak with the Minister directly. He knew he was not allowed to just barge into the Minister's office without an appointment, let alone without the Minister's permission, but screw that too. He was going to do it without qualms. Screw the Minister for approving of the decision to send him on missions that served no purpose other than specifically to tear him away from Danielle. As if he would even so much as consider completing these missions knowing how much it would hurt and disappoint Danielle if he did. This was targeted at  _her_ , at  _them_ specifically, and he would not allow it to happen.

The Minister looked at him skeptically, taking off her glasses and calmly inviting him to take a seat even though he was bold enough to stomp into her office uninvited. He did not even bother sitting down as he was too mad to. The more he thought about it, the more furious he got.

"I won't do it anymore," he practically barked at her as he threw the briefcase onto her desk, sending her other folders flying across the room and her coffee mug to shatter as it fell to the floor.

The Minister ignored the mess that was made and simply arched an eyebrow at him. She was evidently displeased as no Junior Agent had ever dared or would ever dare speak to her like that. But she did not work her way up to this position solely due to good luck. She managed to do it because she was cutthroat and crafty and cold-blooded.

"This is not an attitude I expect from an agent," she stated crisply, hardly getting worked up whereas his chest was heaving in fury. Her stare was stern, belittling, and disapproving. He knew she was referring to more than just his tone when talking to her. It was also about all his failures in her eyes, like getting emotionally attached, not doing a clean job, and now downright refusing to take on the assignments that were arranged for him. That disparaging look in her eyes was something he absolutely loathed as it made him feel so inferior and inadequate and useless. He would easily have crumbled and yielded and done all sorts of things just to not be looked at that way. But now, now that he had Danielle, things were different and his sense of self-worth was different.

"These are not missions I expect to receive either,  _as an agent_ ," he snarled at her. "And you can forget about the rest of my hit list."

She tilted her head to the side slightly, in nonchalance, and shrugged. "You know we can just get another agent to do it, right? There are plenty other agents who, unlike you, are capable of staying professional."

"Don't you dare," he warned, seething in fuming rage. "If you've got a problem with me, then come at me. Don't you dare hurt the ones I love and care about."

She snorted. "Why would I pick a fight with you directly when I know your weaknesses? I would love to torture you by getting my hands on the ones I know you would hate to see get hurt," she smirked diabolically, and then leaned in to speak into an intercom. "Guards, bring him in," she instructed.

Sehun's glare turned into a look of concern and frustration. Now it hit him how unwise it was to just show up unarmed and utterly unprepared. There was not much he could use as a weapon, especially to defend himself and the ones he cared about against whatever it was that the Minister was up to. And he knew she was merciless of course, but just how merciless could she be? He did not want to know but he was about to find out.

When the Minister gave edicts she expected them to be followed and carried out without delay. Although Sehun had strayed from this expectation and standard long ago, she was right to say that plenty of demons in the Ministry were still happy to listen to her and do exactly as they were told. The guards she was speaking to just now were no exception, striding into the room expressionlessly. They were instructed to bring someone in and Sehun had anticipated as much, but what he did not see coming was that it would be  _Junmyeon-hyung_  who was brought in — and more troublingly, on a wheelchair.

"Hyung," Sehun called out urgently. "Hyung, it's me," he said worriedly, hastily running to his side and crouching to Junmyeon's level. Tenderly and with shaky hands he reached out to push the hair out of Junmyeon's bloodied face. The elder demon hardly gave a response and it seemed like he was too weak to speak. His body — the silky smooth skin that many envied — was entirely marred with scars and bruises and cuts and lacerations, all of them nasty and bloody and ugly and each was acquired in the most gruesome and inhumane ways. These were the punishments he had to endure for not only getting emotionally attached to a human but also getting her pregnant and leading to endless complications. He fucked up. Like  _really_  fucked up. Sehun understood, then, that the reason why the Minister had brought a bloody Junmyeon in for him to see was for him to know that this was what was going to happen to him if he continued to dally with and ally himself with irrelevant humans — or vampires, whatever — which would cast his allegiance to Hell into question. That was the other purpose additional to using Junmyeon to devastate him, and as leverage to threaten him and persuade him into being Hell's obedient, emotionless agent.

"Kill him," the Minister ordered indifferently, even sounding a bit bored. The guards did not hesitate at all, grabbing the demon blades that they were already equipped with and completely ready to use them on Junmyeon.

"NO!" Sehun bellowed and was about to throw himself in front of Junmyeon to protect him. But then a loud, unpleasant noise had distracted all of the demons in the room and made them wince in discomfort. An alarm had sounded but it was not a fire alarm — in fact it was denoting something much more serious than a fire. Outside the office, commotions arose here and there not because there was a need to evacuate but because Hell was in complete chaos.

It all started in another department building where a very special room was located. It was heavily guarded as it contained a huge panel that had as many switches as Hell had demons. These were known as 'humanity switches' as they served the important purpose of regulating how much emotion and receptiveness to humanity each demon was allowed to experience. For instance, demon agents who were sent on missions usually had to mingle with and socialize with humans to some degree at least, and so usually their respective departments would allow these relevant demons' humanity switches to be set to a relatively high level so that they would be able to blend in with the rest of humanity more easily and not arouse suspicion.

And now that  _someone_  had hacked into this control room, Hell was turned upside-down.

* * *

"Now what do I do with all these switches?" Asked Dooyoung, looking at his guardian innocently. The panel room was such a foreign place to him, but a place that Yifan had been thinking about a lot. The Senior Agent himself was of course not powerful enough to hack into it, but Dooyoung? Dooyoung was different. He was too dangerous and too destructive for anyone to get in his way. Even higher-ranking, more powerful demons knew better than to not fear this child. He was the perfect weapon and if for once Yifan had to be the bad guy and use Dooyoung for his own purposes, it would be to get into this panel room.

“Push all of them to the max,” Yifan instructed, looking more cunning and less vulnerable than the way he usually carried himself. “This will restore all of us demons to the human setting that we first came to Hell in. This means that essentially we’ll all get our humanity back as well as all our memories of when we were human.”

Dooyoung obeyed with trust and determination. “Is this what you truly want?” He asked, looking up at Yifan with curiosity and hope. “To get away from Hell for good and search for your lost love?”

Yifan nodded resolutely. “It’s better for all the demons I care about to live as humans anyway,” he explained, thinking of Jongin and Yixing who used to be demon agents too but got ‘neutralized’ due to a chain of complicated events and now lived as humans.

“They’re coming,” Dooyoung announced urgently. Thinking on his feet, he mentally manipulated the showers overhead to be activated as if the smoke alarm had been triggered. This would at least inconvenience and delay whoever was coming to get them and stop them.

“They won’t be held off for long. We’ve got to destroy the board so nobody can make further changes,” Yifan asserted decisively. “Can you do it?”

“I can flood the room,” Dooyoung suggested. “But from outside.”

“That works. It’ll cause the board to malfunction and break down,” replied the demon promptly as footsteps and curses from outside became louder, making both of them much more nervous than they already were. “We have to go now. Come this way.”

* * *

“There! You should feel all better now,” said Doctor Do Kyungsoo as he finished patching up his patient, the demon — a demon no longer! — Junmyeon, using his vampire blood which was definitely much needed as Junmyeon had so many wounds that needed to heal. Like Junmyeon, all demons under Senior Management had been neutralized due to the stunt that Yifan and Dooyoung had pulled, back in the control room. With no more allegiance to Hell and their humanity intact, they could go back to living normal human lives.

“I do,” Junmyeon replied and sighed in relief. “Thank you, Doctor. And also, Sehun…”

“Of course I would rescue you, hyung. I’ve made a series of foolish decisions but at least I got you out of there. You’ll be safe with the rest of us now,” said Sehun seriously, and proceeded to update Junmyeon on what he had missed during his time in jail.

“So basically Katie died because of me,” he smiled bitterly, tears filling his eyes as he lied back down and tried to hold them back.

“No,” Kyungsoo chimed in. “I was there when she gave birth and I can attest that you’re not to blame for it.”

Sehun bit back a sigh, not wanting his hyung to wallow in the pain of this loss. “Would you like to meet your son?” He asked upon checking his phone and receiving the message that Yifan and Dooyoung were right outside.

* * *

“You’re so quiet,” Dooyoung commented to Yifan as they showed up at the hospital. This time both of them strived to make sure that the Cambion would not be causing any more trouble like manslaughter. “Is it because you still feel guilty about ‘using’ me to get access to the panel of switches?”

“I wish it didn’t have to be that way,” Yifan admitted glumly. “But you were the only opportunity I got. I wouldn’t have stood a chance otherwise.”

“Then I understand your situation.”

“You do? But you’re just a kid.”

“Yeah, but you still took me seriously and you did explain to me what you’re trying to achieve. So I won’t give you a hard time for it so you shouldn’t beat yourself up either. Besides, it’s in my best interests too, right? It saved my father from Hell’s clutch,” replied Dooyoung. “I just want to meet him. I want to know what he’s like and I want him to tell me more about my mother.”

Yifan nodded in agreement. “He’s inside the ward with Sehun and Doctor Do. Behave yourself, alright? So they know I raised you right.”

“Okay, I will.”

“Good. Let’s go in.”


	16. The Vampire’s Transformation

While Sehun was away, Danielle was blissfully unaware of the chaos that went on in Hell, and stayed at home to eat and watch TV. After cleaning the kitchen, she stood in front of the fridge and noticed something odd: she had not consumed blood in more than 24 hours, only normal human food. She knew that hardly any vampire could survive this, so, to the nearest available vampire she went, paying Kyungsoo a visit at the hospital.

“Do you think something’s wrong with me?” She asked worriedly.

“There’s nothing wrong with you, medically or otherwise,” Kyungsoo replied with certainty. “I should probably tell you what I’ve been keeping from you.”

Danielle gawked at her colleague. “You out of all people would hide things from me! What is it that you are privy to?!”

“Well, Baekhyun asked me to keep this a secret until you caught on and came to me with your suspicions. He knew you would approach me and he’s definitely ten steps ahead of you,” he explained.

She rolled her eyes. “Right. Baekhyun. Of course. Of course he would do something like that. What is it? Please don’t keep me in the dark anymore.”

“The truth is, you’re not a vampire anymore.”

“...huh?”

“Yeah. You’re no longer immortal. Wanna know why? Because when Baekhyun brought Jacob back, there was a price to pay: immortality. Of course, Baekhyun wouldn’t sacrifice his own immortality, so he called the shots and had  _your_  immortality cashed in. He traded that for Jacob’s return as a mortal human. And with that,  _you_  are once again human as well. Mortal. That’s why you don’t have an appetite for blood.”

“Oh my goodness, are you kidding me right now?!” She needed a moment to process this, her jaw hanging open. “For 400 years, I’ve been immortal, and now…fuck, I can’t believe Baekhyun makes these decisions for me without so much as asking me! Please tell me Jacob doesn’t know this either. Seriously, I deserve to know the truth, don’t you think? It’s  _my_  life!”

“No, your brother doesn’t know. Baekhyun did it with your best interests in mind though.”

“Yeah well, if he’s determined to defend his decisions he’ll have endless excuses and justifications,” she replied sardonically.

“I don’t disagree with him on this though. Regarding his motives, at least. He didn’t  _have_  to bring Jacob back or do anything for you, but he did. And you know how you keep telling him that you don’t do relationships so he and you could never be anything more than friends with benefits? He was thinking of that.”

“What in the world does that have to do with taking my vampire identity away from me?” She questioned, frowning as she folded her arms across her chest. “I’m kind of mad here.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure it out and understand once you’ve calmed down and thought about it. After all, you know what’s in your head more clearly than Baekhyun or I do,” he said. “Do you want us to run a vervain test to prove that you truly aren’t a vampire anymore?”

She grimaced instantly. “No, thanks. I know it can’t do shit to humans but I’m honestly still traumatized by it.”

“Understandable,” he sighed. “I suppose you’ll just return the blood bags in your fridge to the storage facility, yeah?”

“Yeah,” she nodded slowly. “Man, things are really gonna be hella different from now on.”

* * *

“Sehun, I have something to tell you…” Danielle began unsurely once the demon — not anymore! — came home.

“Oh my god...are you pregnant?” Sehun gasped, the corner of his lips quirking. “We were so careful though…”

It made Danielle break into a smile even though she added, “it’s something even more life-changing than that.”

“Actually, I have something to tell you too…” said Sehun. “And I’d say it’s a pretty big deal as well, though you should probably go first.”

“Not sure it can be more dramatic than what I just discovered, but alright,” she replied, pausing to take a deep breath. “So, the thing is...I...I’m not a vampire anymore. I’m a human now.” She never thought she would be saying this and actually meaning every single word of it. “Yeah. I know it’s a lot to take in and frankly I’m still processing it but I really hope that we—”

“Same here,” he cut in. “I’m a human too. No longer a demon.”

“W-what?” She gawked at him. “You were just gone for a few hours; I thought you just had to handle some work stuff and blow off some steam.”

“Yeah, about that? I quit my job too. Hell has essentially dissolved because of something Yifan-hyung and Dooyoung did. And now, there’s no more Senior Management. There aren’t any more demons left. Only Special Forces,” he revealed. “It’s a long story, and it’s really complicated, so why don’t you go first.”

She went on to explain everything to him and then he had his turn. “So...I guess that leaves us with all of our humanity and none of our supernatural traits,” she concluded, diffusing the awkwardness with a chuckle and running her hand through her long hair.

“And that’s a good thing, right?” He asked, now tempted to play with her hair too.

“I think so. For the first time in a long, long time, I don’t have to move from town to town every decade anymore. Gosh, I could really use a break,” she laughed.

“I’m not sure what to make of it yet; I’m still adjusting to being so emotionally responsive, except whatever you feel has always been infectious to me,” he admitted. “But don’t you feel vulnerable?”

“I...yes, actually. And I don’t really like feeling like I’m not capable of protecting myself. But you were always here for me and here with me whenever I was vulnerable, and I know I can count on you,” she smiled and wrapped her arms around him. “So I guess it’s not so bad.”

“Of course you can,” he smiled too and put his arms around her as well. “We will protect each other and always be happy together. This is what I want for us.”

“Speaking of ‘together’,” she began, leading him to the couch and inviting him to sit down with her. “I’ve been thinking about some mindsets that I’ve been rigidly sticking to for quite some time.”

“And by ‘quite some time’ you mean like…?”

“More than a century, to be honest,” she admitted. “For instance, I’m convinced that I can’t make a relationship last and that relationships aren’t for me, and that’s why I keep going around saying that I’m determined to not go into a relationship. But if I keep believing that I won’t be able to make it work, and I keep dwelling on how my past relationships have basically never worked out or ended well….I just think it’s ironic how, sometimes, getting to live forever means I forget to live. Means I overlook the present and become wary of the uncertain, infinite future because I was so haunted by the past, and with it all the traumatic experiences and failures and losses.”

“I understand,” he replied solemnly. “I understand trauma. I understand defeat. I understand all that frustration and helplessness and pain.”

“Then you’ll get how it makes me close my mind to all the possibilities and triumphs and gains that I probably could enjoy if I had a different mentality to begin with. So...this just makes me think that I could give relationships a try. I don’t think I actually dislike it per se, and it’s not that I’m unwilling to commit. Because my commitment to you is constantly in my heart and on my mind, and it’s been more than four centuries since I was last committed to someone. Like really, properly committed. To someone I find worthy. In my eyes there’s no one worthier than you and that’s how much you mean to me, Sehun. And...damn, I really hope you want to be in a relationship with me as much as I want it with you.”

Sehun’s emotions had always been dysfunctional but if anything about his feelings was clear to him at all, it was that he knew he was wholly in love with Danielle. Even now, just sitting on the couch with her, not doing anything in particular, he appreciated these moments so much. He did not want to think too much about the future or how much time they will still get to have together, because right now was perfect enough and he just wanted to enjoy and savor these moments to the fullest.

“Wow, I didn’t see it coming,” he said with a gentle laugh. “I mean you having this change of heart. So many things have changed since I met you and I think it’s all for the better. I didn’t think I would find someone I truly love and loves me back, someone who won’t tell me how to feel, and someone who can treat me right. Like, the possibility never even crossed my mind, but I found it all in you. Heck yeah I wanna be with you.”

Cupping her face in his hands, he kissed her with earnestness and passion. She wanted his kisses, downright yearned for them, and responded with equal desire by ardently deepening the kiss. Her reciprocation had him weak, and he was glad to see that when he moved his hand up her thigh she did not resist him. In fact, she was even bolder as she was slowly and sneakily unbuttoning his shirt already.

“You’re not shy, are you?” She chuckled. “I’ve seen you half naked before.”

That made him smile. “Do you wanna see me fully naked?” He offered and playfully leaned in to kiss her jaw and earlobe.

She smirked eagerly. “Not when the curtains are still open like this.”

While she could still bear to disengage from him, swiftly she stood and moved to shut the curtains. But he could not stand to be separated from her even just for a moment. He needed all the physical contact that he could get. Not bothered to wait for her to sit back down, he got up too and decisively pushed her against the wall.

“Now can we get naked?” He prodded, getting absorbed and lost in their passion as he nipped at her collarbone, then going back up and trailed kisses over her jawline. “I want this.”

“What’s the rush?” She teased, but continued undressing him while kissing his neck.

“It’s just...I didn’t even realize how long I’ve been wanting this for,” he replied as his hands were already going to her butt. He went back up to kiss her on the mouth once, twice. “Too long.”

“I probably shouldn’t keep you waiting then.”

She gasped softly when she felt his bulge pressing against her. With his shirt out of the way she proceeded to touch his abs lightly until her fingers reached his zipper. She had meant to tantalize him, he was certain, but he could take it and willingly let her. Her touches and kisses set his senses on fire, and the intense need to grasp for more, to claim more of what she could give him, was sizzling within him, becoming impossible to push aside and overlook. He was not entirely sure what happened in the next few moments but all he knew and all that mattered was that their clothes were gone, piling up on the floor as they were making out in fiery passion. He desired to touch her everywhere but she grabbed his hand and directed him to where she was most desperate for stimulation, so that she could enjoy the friction while he could feel how aroused she was for him.

“You like this?” It sounded more like a pompous comment than a question as he let out a light, breathy chuckle, proceeding to nibble on her bottom lip. He varied the speed and direction as he rubbed her, feeding more pleasure to her body and allowing her to be absorbed in it.

“Fuck, you know the answer,” she whined, grabbing him by the shoulder and squeezing it. She brought their lips together again, demanding to be closer to him. Her wetness made him proud, delighted at her reactions to his touch, but above that it made him hard, so very hard, especially since she was pumping his length up and down in her hand too. He was groaning into their kisses by now and gradually guiding her back to the couch. Panting slightly, he pulled her into his lap and invited her to straddle him.

“Fuck,” she spluttered as she lowered herself onto him. “Love how you fill me up.”

The penetration felt so wonderful that both of them became more vocal about their enjoyment. Rejoicing in this intimacy and loving the view, he held her closer and started cupping and kissing her breasts. She was definitely very exposed to him but did not mind it a single bit as his hands were free to pleasure and stimulate her, whereas she held on to his broad shoulders as she rode him. It reminded her of how his shoulders were what attracted her attention when they first met — and now he had all of her attention, all of it on all of him, and all the sizzling hot gazes that they exchanged. This had only turned her on even more, spurring her on to thrust back and forth with much pleasure, varying the depth and speed as suited her liking.

“So good,” he whispered, licking and nipping at her neck. “You’re so hot.”

She kissed him again and again and again, claiming his mouth at the same time as allowing him to continue playing with her nipples in between his fingertips. “That feels amazing,” she commented, succumbing to her burning need for more stimulation and he would absolutely love to do more for her. It was not long till he was thrusting too, matching her timing and her moans. A grunt escaped his throat the moment she moved to kiss his face, all of her motions building up irresistible pleasure for both of them. His hands soon moved to rest on her hips, desiring more control as he gave in to his urges and began to chase the ecstasy that every part of his body was craving. She was at least as close, moaning as she swivelled her hips, quickening her moments as she dug her nails into his shoulders. The way he was kissing her jaw, oh, it was so intoxicating. She was so certain that a few more thrusts was all it was going to take and she was going to be taken over the edge — and she was right, gasping as she came. He kissed her once more and claimed her body completely till he hit his high too, groaning in bliss at the sensation that was just too, too wonderful.

Grunting lightly as he slowly slid out of her, he wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. She smiled at him as he tucked her hair behind her ear as they panted. He still wanted her so badly that he did nothing to resist the urge to kiss her earlobe and neck again.

“Bedroom?” She suggested with a giggle.

Immediately he nodded and smiled happily. “Bedroom.”

* * *

In the evening, Baekhyun was seated at his favorite café, waiting for Kyungsoo to join him after his shift. He was just on the phone with his Minseok-hyung from the office, updating the manager about Yunhee’s condition.

When the doctor came in and sat down, he announced, “Danielle came to me today. Didn’t react too badly. You’re safe.”

“Great. That’s one problem solved. On to the next,” Baekhyun replied, not at all looking troubled as he idly poked his food with his chopsticks.

“Will you do it?” The vampire asked, knowing what was on the monster’s mind these days.

“Yeah,” Baekhyun drawled smugly. “Never thought there’d come a day when I’d say this, but, yeah. I’m going to break the alpha incubus Chanyeol out of Heaven.”


	17. Epilogue

Few couples could be as sure as Yixing and Naeun were about how meant-to-be they were. Although they had not been properly dating for long — whatever, they should not have to care about ‘properly’ when they had already been through so much in this lifetime and the past one. They also had to come to terms with the fact that they could not rely on the demon blood and angel blood that they respectively used to have to keep them alive for a long, long time. Rooting from their sensitivity to their newfound mortality, and devastated by Katie’s passing which made them realize just how fragile human life was, they had to make the best of the limited time they had left on this earth, and so they decided to get married.

The wedding date was not set yet but for now they were going to host an engagement party. Finding themselves just as mortal were Danielle and Sehun who also got invited to and attended the occasion.

“I feel like a lot is on your mind,” Sehun stated as he and Danielle made their way to the balcony, getting some air after eating and drinking.

“Yeah,” she sighed, leaning on the balustrade for a moment before deciding she was feeling too restless to settle upon one position. “I’m just thinking about the future that Katie could’ve had. Getting to watch her live her life to the fullest and perhaps one day getting married. Whatever makes her happy. But I’ll never get to witness that.”

“Hey, what happened to letting go of our regrets and negative thoughts from the past?” He replied gently, holding her hand. The affection and fondness in his gaze sure did melt away some of her sorrows.

“I guess trying to live in the present moment is not as easy as it seems,” she commented with a shrug, intertwining her fingers with his. “I don’t even know how humans do it.”

“What about thinking about the future that you  _can_  have?” He suggested. “Your own happiness?”

That thought made her smile. “Well, it all started with you.”

“Oh, really? So I’m the best thing to ever happen to you? Is that what you’re saying?” A boyish grin spread across his face as he spoke. He was adapting and his emotional capacity was becoming more and more human now but he still found her emotions to be most infectious.

“Actually, you are. I’ve just been thinking that in my last days as a vamp I have eliminated a big threat to myself and my kind for centuries. Not even the biggest clan of hunters can harm me now, but it still brings me no joy. It hasn’t made me happier. It hasn’t stopped me from losing the people I care about. But at the same time, I also noticed that a big part of my happiness comes from spending time with you. And I think it’s because...I love you.”

She was actually nervous when she said that, and yet her heart was thumping intensely not so much because of her nerves but more because of the mirth and joy that she could not even inhibit anymore. She was unused to saying these words, even unused to being  _so_  in love with someone. It was better to get to experience this special feeling within a finite lifetime than to live forever but never get to feel her heart flutter this way.

He wrapped an arm around her and kissed her, slowly but firmly. He felt blessed to have her in his life and never had he thought he would be able to find someone who could love him this way, someone that he could give all his love to as well. He never really liked his demon life anyway, so he was happy to get a second chance at a human life. And it was with Danielle that he truly got to understand and experience for himself what it really meant to be happy.

“I love you too.” His heart was pounding and he found himself smiling like an idiot. “I love you, and I feel like I want to say it all the time. I'm turning into a sappy romantic.”

She giggled and placed a hand on his chest, staying in his arms and savoring his warmth. They were both unaware that downstairs, Baekhyun was watching. He was happy for them, truly, although he just wished that he could have done more for her, and not at so high a cost. But alas, he was just a monster, not the Almighty.

He was just a monster doomed to live out all his days without his true love by his side.

Yet he would not spend a single moment wallowing in self-pity because that was just not a Baekhyun thing to do. He glanced down at his vibrating phone and answered the call once he found a corner quiet enough. The caller was a nurse from the hospital, bearing some news about Yunhee’s condition. And it was not at all good news.

* * *

In too much of a hurry to notify anybody else at the party about his emergency, Baekhyun has taken his leave and sped to the hospital once he was informed that Yunhee’s condition was destabilizing. He would never pity himself but he did have some pity for Yunhee. He understood that she would probably want him around as often as possible, knowing she did not have much time left.

By the time he reached the ward that she was in, he was panting and sweating and could barely maintain his balance, but only to be received by a crestfallen Doctor Do.

“Baekhyun,” said Kyungsoo, his voice strained and encumbered with regret. “We've done everything in our power…”

Baekhyun stared at the vampire doctor with his mouth hanging wide open and his chest still heaving up and down. “Yunhee…what…how...”

“Yunhee is dead,” Kyungsoo announced somberly. “I'm sorry.”

* * *

As Yunhee's body was moved to the morgue, Baekhyun had been absentmindedly signing some papers about organ donations and some religious blessings. Distrait, he left the hospital and drove to the discreet designated meeting spot. Sometimes he could not believe he was doing something as risky and as exhilarating as breaking Chanyeol, the alpha incubus, out of Heaven. And yet, here he was, ready to help out an old friend and pick him up at a portal that connected Heaven and Earth.

The monster had it all planned out: where he was going to bring Chanyeol to settle down after this great escape, as well as arranging for Chanyeol to meet someone, a special person who had waited centuries to see him again.

Baekhyun was certain that Chanyeol was going to show up at midnight. Just thinking about it was making the adrenaline course through his veins and making him feel alive. Chanyeol had been jailed for hundreds of years, but a few more minutes to go and he would be free.

Waiting. Baekhyun was waiting.


End file.
